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Manny Pacquiao: The Fire is Back

By Hermilando “Ingming” Duque Aberia

(Managing Editor’s Note: Hermilando “Ingming” Duque Aberia is our Newest Feature Writer hailing from the PI. I, along with the rest of the team welcome him aboard.)

Although Team Pacquiao has started Day One of training camp early this week, it won’t be until today when the regimen of Manny Pacquiao’s preparations for the Antonio Margarito fight will be at full swing. The Pacquiao-Margarito clash at Dallas, Texas, will come about in 8 weeks, on November 13, 2010.

Training camp will be in the Pines City of Baguio.

This is the same place where Team Pacquiao has groomed the world’s top pound-for-pound boxer into perfect shape for the Miguel Cotto fight in November 2009. Chief Trainer Freddie Roach has made known his liking for Baguio, citing its high-altitude terrain and having “no traffic” in a press briefing the other in downtown Manila.

Interestingly, Manny Pacquiao himself seemed to have approached the choice of training site with reluctance. The weeks leading up to what his followers know now have shown him suggesting several options, such as the gym inside the premises of the House of Representatives—of which he is a member—in Quezon City, and in other relatively nearby locations.

The closer to where he works as a congressman, the better; and Baguio, which is some 400 kilometers north of Quezon City, does not exactly fit to that idea. One could sense that Pacquiao does not want to make it easy for anyone to think he is shaking off his congressional duties just because he is hard at work for another big fight.

In the overall context of a training program, fight fans may look at Manny Pacquiao’s current distraction as a small, negligible detail. This guess is not without basis. He has, after all, attracted media attention throughout this decade and has not been spared from being subject of steamy gossip, among other sensational tales.

In many of his previous fights, including the big ones such as against Cotto, themes like Manny “The Loverboy” hugged the tabloid headlines more than Pacquiao “The Fighter” did. And as scenes of these fights faded like one victorious routine for him, we asked:

“What distractions?”

Truly, Manny Pacquiao has such an inviolable focus inside the gym that he could work in the middle of a civil war.

Just the same, one may quickly add that this kind of mental digression leading to Manny’s fight preparations is novel. It was not there prior to his climbing the ring in 16 years that he had been a prizefighter. It is only now that he will fight with either the burden or inspiration of being a congressman.

There are other things that Pacquiao will address for the first time when he faces Margarito on November 13.

Pacquiao will trade punches with the tallest, biggest, strongest and heaviest opponent he will ever meet inside the ring. We may add that Margarito was once a feared world champion, and one who, some boxing experts say, has for a long time been in Floyd Mayweather, JR’s “to-be-avoided” list.

From the time Pacquiao started to brave the odds by scaling the higher weight divisions from featherweight (his fighting weight at age 25, at which time men normally stop growing physically), he will now be testing the farthest limit yet of his capacity as a boxer so far.

The goods news—for Pacquiao fans—is what one saw in the preview of Day One of training camp. Working the mitts with Roach, Pacquiao went bang, bang (to copy Jim Lampley).

The fire in his eyes was back. The warrior in him is alive.

Boxing fans will have their own reasons for picking either Pacquiao or Margarito as having the edge in this fight. But on November 13, they can be sure of one thing. Pacquiao will put on a show. It is almost hard to believe he will be there to perform what he has been doing for 16 years.

To read more articles from Hermilando

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