Pacman Drama

Drama ra na uy! Drama or real?

If you’re a Pacman fan, I’m sure you’re concerned. When will Manny Pacquiao start training for his fight against Cotto on November 14? Where will he train? Baguio, Mexico, Bahamas or Cebu? How much does he weigh these days? Is he taking care of his body with all his current obligations in showbiz and Saranggani that have seen him take on an incredible schedule of activities? Will eight weeks of training be enough to make Pacquiao ready for Cotto?

Isn’t it funny how Pacquiao’s “off-season” is now being dodged by more questions than answers? The tough part is that all these lead to insinuations that Pacquiao may not be doing the right thing with a big fight coming up soon. He’s busy shooting a film and laying the groundwork for his second attempt to make it to Congress, and not doing anything related to his upcoming fight. One of the most disturbing news about all this drama is how Freddie Roach is upset over the fact that he didn’t have the chance to talk to Pacquiao for quite awhile. The drama unfolds even further with Pacquiao advisers Michael Koncz and Jing Gacal reportedly calling Roach a simple trainer and not the manager of the Pacman, and therefore is in no position to tell Pacquiao what to do these days, some two months before the fight.

On the other hand, Miguel Cotto started training for the November fight around a month ago and isn’t reported to be making a film or planning to run for public office. Boxing is his main focus and nothing else. So what do all these tell us? It’s obviously a one-sided twist of news that’s making Cotto look good, and on the other side, Pacquiao is made to appear like the bad guy. And it’s surely causing Pacman fans around the world to worry. And you can’t blame them for feeling this way.

So far, this is what we’re reading in the sports pages and boxing websites these days. Is all this true? Or just simply drama?

Whatever it is, it’s obviously a cause of concern for Pacquiao fans. But we as fans will also have to learn how to interpret and read between the lines of all these news stories and reports. For starters, we shouldn’t be worried. When people write about how Pacquiao may not be in shape, that’s partly true. He’s surely not yet in 100% shape and at his peak, but this doesn’t mean that he’s totally out of shape. You can ask him to run 10K and he’ll surely do it with ease. Ask him to do some punch mitt routines with Buboy Fernandez now and you’ll see how his quickness isn’t that far off from the ideal setting.

Pacquiao is just Pacquiao. He’s so naturally gifted that all he needs is an eight-week training program to get him into peak form. When people say that he hasn’t maintained his conditioning, don’t believe them. Pacquiao has managed to squeeze in a few miles of roadwork that hasn’t gone reported and has also been playing basketball to break a sweat. While he hasn’t hit the bags or done any sparring, these won’t be necessary until the formal gym workouts start next week. But then again, you never know, maybe Pacquiao has already hit the gym with Buboy behind closed doors.

It looks like we’re all playing into Team Pacquiao’s PR strategy of playing reverse psychology of making the bad guy look good at the end of it all. While it may appear that Team Pacquiao has some PR matters to address, it might just be precisely what they want to happen. They’re making Pacquiao look “bad” even to the point that fans might sense that Pacquiao may be ruining his body and conditioning. The icing on the cake is when the Freddie Roach vs. Jing Gacal/Michael Koncz feud is played up. On face value, it looks like Pacquiao’s pre-fight operations is going out of synch.

Need any assurance that everything’s fine? Check out the betting odds at Vegas. They’re basically the same since the fight was announced, with Pacquiao as an overwhelming favorite. Case closed.

So don’t worry. At the end of the day, Pacquiao will have the final say on how he’ll prepare for the fight. He isn’t that dumb that he’ll underestimate Cotto’s talents as a boxer. When training camp starts, you can bet that it will all be tough, grinding work that will have the Pacman peaking at the right place, at the right time: November 14 in Vegas.

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Time-out: Kudos to the lean but mean SHSJ Grade School Athletics squad that had everyone winning a medal at the Milo Little Olympics! You can reach me at [email protected].   (FREEMAN NEWS)