"I now hear that Manny wants to train in the Philippines. I think it's a mistake. I think it's too many distractions for him. This is the toughest fight of his life. Cotto's a big 147-pounder, strong guy, beat Shane Mosley, a speed guy like Manny; he nullified Shane's speed with his own speed. People tell me he's slow, but I disagree. He's a tough, tough fight for us. I hope that Manny and his crew wake up and smell the coffee and get to work on picking a place so we can go to camp as soon as possible," stated world-class trainer Freddie Roach as he shared his frustration with Team Pacquiao regarding their talks about possibly training in the Philippines.
World-class trainer Freddie Roach is fully aware of the task at hand when Manny Pacquiao steps into the ring to face Miguel Cotto on November 14th. While Cotto has already begun preparations for the highly-anticipated clash, Pacquiao is busy fulfilling other duties, including the filming of a movie, and has yet to decide on a location for training camp. "I talked to Mike Koncz yesterday. I said, 'Where are we going to train?' He said, 'I haven't asked Manny yet.' I said, 'You haven't asked Manny yet? What do you mean you haven't asked Manny?' He says, 'He's busy making a movie.' I said, 'What the Hell? You're scared to ask Manny?' These guys are petrified of Manny because they're just there for a payday and I'm pissed off about it," Roach stated in frustration.
Eager to get to camp to start preparing Manny for perhaps his toughest challenge to date, Roach is not excited about the possibility of training in the Philippines and prefers to setup camp in Mexico. "I have a camp setup in the mountains in Toluca, Mexico. I have an offer to go to Puerto Viallarta and I have an offer to go to Cancun and I have an offer to go to the Bahamas since we can't train in America for the first five weeks of training camp. I now hear that Manny wants to train in the Philippines. I think it's a mistake. I think it's too many distractions for him," he revealed. "This is the toughest fight of his life. Cotto's a big 147-pounder, strong guy, beat Shane Mosley, a speed guy like Manny; he nullified Shane's speed with his own speed. People tell me he's slow, but I disagree. He's a tough, tough fight for us. I hope that Manny and his crew wake up and smell the coffee and get to work on picking a place so we can go to camp as soon as possible," Roach added as he stressed the importance of making a decision soon in order to properly prepare for Cotto.
Normally, the training camp location wouldn't be an issue for Pacquiao, who does the majority of his training at Freddie Roach's Wild Card Gym, but a new IRS provision states that non-resident aliens, like Pacquiao, must limit the amount of time they spend in the United Stated during a three-year period. Pacquiao, who's already spent a great deal of time in the United States training for past fights, is already close to that limit so he's forced to do the majority of his training elsewhere. Although Roach is unfazed with the fact that he'll have to train his star pupil in unfamiliar surroundings, his main concern is choosing the right place for Manny to be able to focus.
"It's a training camp. It's a business. That's why you're there. We don't need vacation areas with tourists watching us and so forth...it's a beautiful gym. They have a beautiful facility up there owned by the government. It's well-protected and a 5-star hotel is 20 minutes away from the gym. Everything is right there. They have unbelievable hills; they go from 10,000 to 14,000 feet above sea level. I'm not a big altitude guy on altitude training, but I'm used to seclusion and getting your mind on the fight is what I want and I don't think he can do that in the Philippines," said Roach.