A do or die situation confronts Manny Pacquiao on Nov. 23rd as the eight division world champion comes off two back to back losses (one of which being the brutal KO to Juan Manuel Marquez). Questions abound on whether he has the same confidence he once had a few years ago. Adding fuel to the fire, Pacquiao has not scored a significant knock out over a opponent since his domination of a much bigger Miguel Cotto in 2009. This has lead us to believe that the abilities of Pacquiao have diminished with age as the fighter of the decade reaches the final stages of his surefire hall of fame career.
Pacquiao contends that he feels fine and healthy believing his prior performances were more as a result of his opponents always running and that he will be back to vintage form in Macao, China against Brandon Rios. At this point we have our own beliefs and opinions if Pacquiao is a diminished fighter but long time trainer Freddie Roach insists the first moment his fighter shows a lack of work ethic or signs of slipping in training camp, he is done.
“If I see flaws in training camp I will tell Manny it is over. The thing is until we get there we really don’t know and we can’t really guess. The thing is my number one priority is to take care of my fighter no matter what..that means in the gym or in the fight. If something happens in either place it will be addressed right away.”
Strong words from Freddie Roach but commendable ones. We have seen too many times in the past fighters take unnecessary fights and unnecessary damage in what can be the sweetest of sports but also the cruelest. The weight of burden is on Pacquiao to show not only his fans, media, but also his trainer that he indeed still has what it takes to be on top of the boxing world.
