Freddie Roach: Amir Khan Beating Up Manny Pacquiao
By Ian Palmer, Mon, October 25, 2010
Nobody but Freddie Roach knows if his tongue was planted in his cheek when he said, “Amir punched the shyt out of Manny,” after arriving at LAX on the weekend.
Roach, who's preparing both Filipino boxing sensation Manny Pacquiao (51-3-2, 38 KOs) for his upcoming fight against Antonio Margarito (38-6, 26 KOs) and England’s Amir Khan (23-1, 17 KOs) for his tilt with Marcus Maidana (29-1, 27 KOs), was captured making the statement on video shortly after landing at the airport. But even if he’s just jesting, it’s believed there’s always a shred of truth in every joke.
Roach, Khan, and Pacquiao all arrived in L.A. to set up training camp at Roach’s Wild Card Gym in Hollywood and these are the most crucial three weeks for Pacquiao. He’ll step into the ring against Margarito Nov. 13 at Cowboys Stadium in Dallas, Texas for the vacant WBC Super Welterweight Title. Khan has an extra few weeks to get ready -- he'll square off against Maidana in defense of his WBA Jr. Welterweight crown in Las Vegas on Dec. 11.
It's not clear if Roach was trying to hype the fight by stirring up controversy, but Khan has definitely been holding his own against Pacquiao in their sparring sessions. Roach told boxingscene.com, “The sparring with Amir Khan was great. There were some days where Manny got the best of Amir, and then there were days when Amir got the best of Manny. It was back and forth and was very good. "
It’s believed Khan was brought into camp to help Pacquiao regain his speed after sparring against bigger fighters to get used to Margarito’s larger, natural-welterweight build. However, it seems Pacquiao was getting too used to the slower pace of the bigger sparring partners and his hand speed was suffering because of it.
After being criticized by his promoter Bob Arum last week for his poor showing in training , Pacquiao picked up the pace and took his frustrations out on two other sparring partners, Glen Tapia (7-0, 5 Kos) and Michael Medina (24-2-2, 19 KOs), who are both Jr. middleweights.
According to Roach, Arum was spot on with his assessment of Pacquiao the day he showed up to watch sparring and said, “Manny looked good in spots, but on that day, they got the best of him.”
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