Manny Pacquiao’s latest distraction: expensive Halloween party
According to news reports, it doesn’t appear Manny Pacquiao has taken trainer Freddie Roach’s advice when he suggested avoiding outside distractions in light of his November 13 contest with Antonio Margarito.
After arriving in Los Angeles a week ago from the Philippines, Pacquiao has already attended an extracurricular basketball game and the political rally of US Senator Harry Reid while maintaining training camp. Now FanHouse determines he also took part
in an exclusive Halloween party, in which he awarded costume winners various amounts of money.
You have to wonder how Freddie Roach feels about that.
Since training camp began a month ago, there’s been no dearth of stories indicating Pacquiao has been distracted by non-stop public relations and political duties as Philippine congressman. The result has been an unfocused, subpar training camp. In fact,
Roach went so far as to confess on the HBO reality series 24/7 that this time around camp has undoubtedly been Pacquiao’s “worst” camp.
Yet for all of the concerns, Pacquiao doesn’t seem to want to budge or sacrifice. “I can rest after the fight,” he recently said.
Still, there are those who refuse to acknowledge the seriousness of Pacquiao playing boxing hooky. After all, it was promoter Bob Arum who decreed Pacquiao come out to support Reid at his rally.
On the question of outside distractions, Arum said Pacquiao “has the ability to multi-task like nobody else I've ever seen.” He added: “He doesn't let distractions affect his performance. I've seen him go from meetings all day to a workout, and then he'll
wash up and eat and go to band rehearsal.”
Some have speculated that Pacquiao’s goodness and desire to meet the requirements of his fans and more generally ‘the people’ have put him at odds with his boxing career.
Roach didn’t seem to be joking when he mused that it will only be a matter of time until Pacquiao is lost to politics.
As he well knows, once a fighter’s head isn’t entirely dedicated to his cause, his career is all but gone.
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