Report from Blissful Baguio: Manny Pacquiao hitting on all cylinders

Bob Arum began regaling me with his first-hand report card from Pacland when he was still going through US Customs at McCarran International Airport in Las Vegas.

"I can't really talk here," Arum said. "I will call you back when I am clear."

At the finish line of two flights, Manila to Vancouver and then Vancouver to his home town, Arum had spent about 14 hours in the air.

But the 79 year old, indefatigable promoter of Manny Pacquiao was eager to report that his prized pupil was in outstanding mental and physical condition five weeks in front of his May 7 MGM Grand Las Vegas bout against Sugar Shane Mosley.
"This may have been my most pleasant trip ever to the Philippines," Arum said. "Everything, how Manny looked, my discussions with him about business, the weather and the people I met was great. There were no typhoons or other weather problems."

Arum spent about five days at Pacman's training camp in Baguio City and he marveled at what he saw.

"Manny does things that are incredible even when you see them up close," Arum said. "In the morning, he runs an hour and a half, including 45 minutes running up a mountain.

"In the afternoon, he's at the gym and he trains for three hours continously.

"Then, at night, he plays with his semi-pro basketball team and he plays the entire game, he never goes to the bench. He also never passes the ball. I mean, who does all that in one day and day after day? I don;t know any human who can do that."

I asked if the veteran promoter of such great ring talents as Muhammad Ali and Marvelous Marvin Hagler feels that Pacquiao, at age 32, is coming into his true prime time.

"Who can say? I do know he is still learning, still picking up new tricks working with Freddie Roach and you rarely see such an accomplished fighter adding to his repotoire like that. It's really something to see."
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Arum revealed that he got Megamanny to agree to relocate to Los Angeles and Roach's sweat mecca, the Wild Card Gym on April 2 in order to maximize publicity opportunities with Showtime and its broadcast partner CBS.

"Showtime had its Fight Camp 360 team in Baguio and the CBS owned and operated stations also had something over there," Arum said.

Arum said the mood in the large Pacman camp, usually rife with dissension and disharmony, was blissful.
"It really is, everybody is getting along nicely. I mean, usually you have some backbiting and problems with some people, but not now. Team Pacquiao is really working together and it is different from past camps."

While in Baguio, Arum took some verbal shots at recent Top Rank defector Nonito Donaire and his wife, sexy Rachel Marcial Donaire, including slamming how Mrs. D dresses.

I asked Arum if he regretted his remarks, which Golden Boy's Richard Schaefer termed comments of a "low life."

"No," Arum said, "all I was doing was putting it in context. These are things the Filipinos are saying and I just put in context. She was the one who commented on how Manny's wife, Jinkee, dresses."

When the most controverisal incident at a Pacquiao training camp is a commentary on the revealing couture of another fighter's wife, well Arum is right.

That's not normal for Pacland.

Arum makes it sound all positive for Pacquiao.

The lingering question is then, is all this good news from Pacland all bad news for the Mosley camp up in the rarefied mountain air at Big Bear Lake?

Source: http://www.examiner.com/