The definitive analysis of Manny Pacquiao and Antonio Margarito mid-training camp
Assessing the respective progress of Manny Pacquiao and Antonio Margarito in light of their upcoming 13 November title fight proves a tantalizing affair.
If most reports are to be believed, developments have managed to do figuratively what fight fans secretly hoped for anyway: turn fighters' identities on their heads.
Pacquiao, the lawmaker, has been depicting as a lawbreaker in training camp. He’s skipped morning jogs for irrelevant basketball games, refused to give up extracurricular activities, and generally looking
sloppy in the gym, all of which have caused unprecedented friction with trainer Freddie Roach and promoter Bob Arum.
Margarito, on the other hand, seems uncannily at home at his training site in Oxnard, California. It’s almost as if he’s found a new calling in life. Pictures from a recent fundraiser and a Ring Magazine
account by boxing historian Doug Fischer depict Margarito, who not long ago was banned from boxing for wearing illegal hand wraps, as a redemptive character possessing underrated skills and misunderstood virtues.
So what’s what here?
The first and main thing to keep in mind of course is that boxing is a striving business and will do what it needs to in order to sell. And if that mean falsely hyping up an angle, so be it.
The reality is that if Pacman was presented in this fight as he usually is in the media, and ditto Margarito, there would no rising action, no tension. The whole thing would fall flat; not worth the overpriced
sugary soda and the bag of buttered popcorn. But by reversing the roles, by playing the naughty Pacquiao and compassionate Margarito card, boxing suddenly has a compelling story to offer the world.
How true those stories are is another matter.
Almost universally reporters have commented on Pacquiao’s “inadequate” training sessions up this point, and in lieu of remarks made by Roach and Arum this is either a nail-biting reality or an expert selling-point.
We should go with both.
For starters, there’s good reason to believe Pacquiao is having a tough time keeping it together in Baguio City, because conditions have never been what they are this time around. That’s a historical
fact, and it means something. Actually, it’s surprising more reporters haven’t addressed this point. Let’s not forget that while Pacquiao was politically involved before Margarito, this will be his first fight since elected to the House of Representatives
in May as congressman Pacquiao. That means that since May Manny has had to deal with all kinds of huge demands hitherto unknown to him. With power comes responsibility. In short Manny’s training camp has never been so infested with outside interruptions
and demands as this one. Not by a long shot.
And if that wasn’t enough to change things, there’s another big factor in this bout for Pacquiao: weight. Margarito-Pacquiao is set at a catchweight of 151lb, though will be for the junior middleweight
(154 pound) crown. Margarito is contracted to weigh in at 151 or pay a heavy fine. But after that, in the day following weigh-in (fight day), he can gain all he wants. And he will. Arum speculated that Margarito will likely gain ten pounds between weigh-in
and the time of the fight, arguably giving him a significant fighting advantage.
That won’t be the case for Pacquiao, since he hasn’t had to lose weight to make junior middleweight. He’s had to put it on. Because he’s fighting at such an unnatural weight for his body, training camp
has largely been about gaining weight and converting it to utilizable muscle, all without jeopardizing sacred code No.1: preserving his speed. If Manny loses his speed in this fight, he loses everything.
Things are a bit more ambiguous to digest with Margarito. The camaraderie he’s shown with trainer Robert Garcia could be an act.
This could be Margarito’s last significant payday.
At the same time, high stakes and once-in-a-lifetime opportunities are known to change men, and Margarito may be one of those men.
Though Pacquiao doesn’t seem the type, his boundless dedication to boxing seems bound to slow to a halt if it hasn’t already (congress duties seem to indicate as much).
When there is nothing to focus on anymore in a given sphere, how can focus itself be maintained? There's no question that Arum in particularly would have no problem hyping up an angle of the fight to try
and close the betting lines together and get viewers to fork out more cash. But beneath all the dramatic storylines, there might just be kernel of truth: that Margarito has a better shot at knocking out Pacquiao than anybody would have given him credit for
just months ago.
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