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Roach:"IF hE wANTS to Fight, we'll fight"
By
Joe Rein
FightBeat.com Executive
Editor
Applause
is not something you hear at the Wild Card Gym, where James Toney, the Klitschko
brothers, and Shane Mosley regularly train. But, a Nolan Ryan fastball exploding
in a catcher’s mitt gets your attention.
Every
blurring salvo that Manny Pacquiao threw at Freddie Roach’s mitts didn’t
land…they detonated. You saw a man a shade over 126 pounds; but that
sound from the mitts couldn’t come from anybody but Earnie Shavers. For three
rounds, Pacquiao’s barrage continued like a battleship pounding shore positions;
until the hooks, crosses and uppercuts were a drum solo, and there were no
longer beats, just concussion for 30 seconds until the bell sounded.
Fighters
and trainers and ringsiders were on there feet applauding. It was watching
Barry Bonds hit home runs, Jordan dunk, and Pavarotti hit the high note. At the
pace Roach had to work to keep up with Pacquiao’s hand speed; by the time this
training camp is over, he’ll be ready for another crack at Bobby Chacon himself.
It really
seems improbable that Pacquiao could generate the power that he does throwing so
fast; but every punch in the combinations is landed as if he loaded up on each
one. So, Marquez will not only have to deal with blazing speed; each punch
carries KO power – plus, Pacquiao has quick feet, moving to the left and right,
good balance, and a high work rate.
After
Roach cooled down from the mitt session, we spoke:
Q: Can you
tell what kind of shape – reflex wise – a fighter is in just by how he handles
the mitts?
FR:
Definitely! I can gauge him easily on the mitts. The mitts are more strategy
workouts. I’m going to watch tape of Marquez, and I’m going to emulate things
that he’s doing in the ring. You watch a guy, and sometimes they have a bad
habit. So, every time you do this, they do that. We’re gonna watch those tapes
and pick up on those things, and take advantage of them. So, when Marquez makes
a move Manny will know what to do to counter it.
Q: How soon will Manny spar,
Freddie?
FR:
Right now he’s just
building his base up. Justin’s (Fortune) started taking him to the mountains to
do roadwork in the morning. We’re doing mitts and bag work, and so forth.
We’ll start boxing in about ten days. Manny’s always in, somewhat, shape. They
told me he was coming in heavy. He weighed 35… which is great! We’ve got seven
weeks before the fight. You need something to build toward. So, he has a
little weight to lose, but with the hard work, it will come off, naturally. We
have some tapes of Marquez coming in, and we’ll study the tapes a little more,
and we’ll be ready on the eighth.
Q: You
mentioned earlier, you had a fight plan. What kind of sparring partners will
you be bringing in for that plan?
FR:
Well, of course, we’ll look for guys like Marquez. We’re going to box with all
kinds of different styles. I believe, when you’re sharp, you’re sharp. Just
because Marquez fights this way with that guy doesn’t mean he’s going to fight
the same way with Manny, of course. There’s certain things he may do over and
over that we’ll pick up on. But, styles make fights. So, you never know what
to expect. So, we’ll be ready for whatever he brings to the table. If he wants
to fight, we’ll fight. If he wants to box, we’ll be ready for that, too.
Manny’s a complete fighter. He’ll handle whatever happens in there.
Q: I
notice with Toney, he’ll spar with anybody, even if he has no similarity to his
opponent. Yet at fight time, he’s ready. Is there something different about
the two fighters in your approach to their sparring?
FR:
James is a little bit different. He’s not going to change his style for
anybody. He’s gonna make you fight his fight. Work is work. Sometimes you
don’t get guys that are exactly the same. Marquez has very smart people in his
corner. They’re going to come with a whole different strategy. They’re not
gonna be the same people we see everyday on the tapes, I’m sure. Whatever style
comes to the table, he’s gonna be ready for it. He’s gonna spar with Bernard
Dunne, Israel Vasquez, Kahren Harutyunyan, and then, I’m gonna hire a couple of
other guys from Mexico. So, when he’s sharp with those guys, he’s sharp with
anybody.
Q:
How many total rounds of sparring will he do until you think he’s ready?
FR:
I’ve never been a believer in counting rounds of sparring. The thing is, every
day you have to go with how a fighter feels, how he looks…There’s no set number
in my mind. Manny will spar three days a week, on Monday’s, Wednesday’s, and
Friday’s. And, on other days, we’ll do the heavy-bag days, and mitt days. But,
he’s not gonna get in shape by sparring; he’s gonna get in shape by his
roadwork, his conditioning workouts. Justin Fortune’s great at that. He’ll go
to the mountains. He’ll do sprint days. He’ll do hill days…everything’s gonna
be covered. The sparring will get his timing down; and once the timing’s there,
he’s gonna be tough for anyone in the world to deal with.
****
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