Roach: Manny ready for fight

HOLLYWOOD—No more sleepless nights for Manny Pacquiao’s trainer Freddie Roach. The hard grind is over for him and the pound-for-pound king.


“Today (Saturday) was just light sparring, the hard work’s done,” Roach told Manila-based sportswriters in his cramped office at the Wild Card Gym here.


“Manny knows the game plan. Whatever Margarito does, he knows the answer. He knows how to win this fight.”
Roach said that Pacquiao, with 56 fights under his belt in a 15-year ring career, is already a crafty veteran who needs little guidance.


“I just let him have some fun today,” the Hall of Fame trainer said. “Light day of sparring five rounds. He asked me for six, he asked me to go another round. He got it. He’s exactly ready for the fight.”


Familiar with Pacquiao’s penchant to do extra work at the gym, Roach said he knows how to go around it.


“He thinks we’ll go four, but we’ll go three, and he’ll ask me for another one and I will let him go,” Roach said. “We’ll do a couple of mitts and that would be it. Monday’s gonna be just light workout because we have to travel later (to Texas) that day.”


Roach, as promised, didn’t hold more than 110 rounds of sparring for his prized ward. Before the Margarito fight, Pacquiao used to spar for at least 140 rounds in the run-up to the actual battle.


Roach told Pacquiao to take the day-off Sunday so he could catch up on sleep. He admitted to experiencing anxious nights in Baguio where distractions hampered Pacquiao’s training.


“Last night, I slept 10 straight hours because I am happy where we’re at,” said Roach, who admits to being an workaholic.


He said he needs as much sleep as he could now because he has Pacquiao, Amir Khan and Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. getting ready for big fights.


“That’s extra work,” said Roach.


“Yesterday in the mitts, I was pretty tired, Manny beat the s… out of me, Amir Khan beat the s… out of me, Chavez Jr. doesn’t hit the mitts heavy that much. So I worked eight rounds with Chavez, 10 rounds with Amir and 12 rounds with Manny, so it’s a hard day. But it’s what I lived for, and it’s what I want.”


Roach said that to be on weight this early is “ridiculous,” and he shrugged off reports that Margarito has had no problem in this area.


“I mean, Oscar (De La Hoya) also did the same thing, it’s ridiculous. All fights are all about making the weight on the day of the fight.”


He said Pacquiao won’t have any problem making the 150-pound catch weight since he already weighed 147 lb Friday.