Just a few short months ago, prior to the start of training camp, several anonymous members of Team Pacquiao came forward to share their frustrations about the manner in which they were being treated by certain individuals within the team. The news came as no surprise to many as it's not the first time that turmoil and animosity has erupted within the team during previous training camps. Often times, tempers would flare during disagreements between key individuals, causing heated verbal altercations and fists to fly on some occassions. For this camp, however, things seem to be drastically different as all the members of Team Pacquiao seem to be much happier and getting along better than ever before. FightHype.com sat down with one integral member of Team Pacquiao, Timothy James, to get an inside look at what's different this time around as Manny Pacquiao prepares for his upcoming May 7th showdown with "Sugar" Shane Mosley.

 

 

TJ: Dude, I'm in amazement. I've been with Manny every day since he got back to the States and I'm just in amazement. I've never seen the guy more focused, happier, or training harder. We've never seen him at this level, which is interesting because how do you train somebody that's better than everybody else right now in the world, in our opinion, and he's at a better level than he's ever been?

 

 

TJ: The camp itself is just incredible. The camp is getting along. Everybody is having fun; everybody is working together. Michael Koncz is doing an excellent job with Top Rank and getting endorsements and working with everybody together. He is handling his business, doing a great job, and I have to take my hat off to him.

 

 

TJ: Yeah, Mike's doing a great job. I've spoken with his fighters under MP Promotions and they're telling me that Michael has just stepped his game up and is doing an awesome job. He's doing an excellent job. Fighters like Bernabe Concepcion are just very happy right now and they feel like they're being treated better than they've ever been treated. They're doing a great job and, like I said, I have to take my hat off to Michael Koncz, who seems to be leading his part of the team in the direction of success.

 

 

TJ: I think that everybody sees Manny happy, you know? You like to see the Champ happy; you like to see him smile, so when you see the Champ smiling or you see the Champ happy and you see the Champ playing around, you don't want to rock the boat. I think that when you see that Manny Pacquiao is actually getting better endorsements and you see better things happening, and they're contributed by people like Freddie Roach, Alex Ariza and Michael Koncz, then you say, "Wow. Okay, you know what? You guys have stepped up the game and you guys are doing great for Manny and we're all going to respect it." When MPBoxing started doing better and when MPBoxing started bringing better videos and now we have a better format, you know, then people got a lot more respect for MPBoxing too. I think that there's a lot of people that are stepping up to the level that Manny Pacquiao deserves and respect is being given.

 

 

TJ: A happy Champ is a happy camp, exactly! And a happy camp makes a happy Champ, you know? I think that that's happening right now and I have to give kudows to people like Freddie Roach and Alex Ariza and I have to give kudows to Michael Koncz. They're doing a great job with making sure they have a good team around them. Basically it's one of the first times that really everything seems organized and everybody seems to be on the same page.