INQUIRER Sports

MANILA, Philippines?Drastic times call for drastic measures.

Trainer Freddie Roach will close the doors of his famed Wild Card Gym to keep away distractions as Manny Pacquiao prepares for his Dec. 6 multimillion-dollar showdown against Oscar De La Hoya at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas.

?Once the press tour is done, the gym is closing down,? the outspoken trainer told boxingscene.com yesterday. ?I?m closing the doors and I?m just going to concentrate on the Pacquiao fight and we?ll be well prepared for the fight.?

This is the first time the Hollywood gym will be off-limits to fans and even other boxers as Pacquiao usually entertains his followers at the venue while he works out.

Pacquiao and De La Hoya are in the middle of their six-city promo tour which will take them on Friday to Houston, home city of the football team Dynamo which is co-owned by the Golden Boy.

Roach added that he doesn?t want any distraction in their training which many believe will be hinged on the catchphrase: ?Speed kills.?

?How we are going to win this fight is that we?re not going to put a lot of weight on and use our strength,? said Roach. ?Speed is how you win this fight. We have a great strategy and I know Oscar?s weaknesses and we?re going to take advantage of it.?

Roach steered Pacquiao?s blazing career for the past seven years and he once served as De La Hoya?s cornerman when he lost to Floyd Mayweather Jr. in May last year in the highest grossing fight in history.

?This is going to be interesting because of my age,? De La Hoya, 35, was quoted by the Houston Chronicle. ?He is the younger guy, the younger lion. He?s faster, but I have the experience.

?I have heard Freddy Roach said, ?if Oscar was 29 or 28, I would never take this fight.? So to me it?s such motivation. These are the type of events that get me going, get me fired up. Because at this point of my career, I need something different to get me into that gym, to wake me up at five in the morning to go run, to stay away from my family for two months and stay up in the mountains.?

De La Hoya, 35, has a cabin at the high altitude San Bernardino mountains in Big Bear, California where he intends to finish his training under Juan Manuel Marquez?s Hall of Famer trainer Ignacio ?Nacho? Beristain.

Beristain offered harsh words through an interpreter: ?Pacquiao has been called a train in the ring. Well, De La Hoya is going to stop that train. He is going to take him out of the railroad. Manny Pacquiao is going to be over.?