27.09.07 – Fred Sternburg: We’ve got a bi-coastal conference call today. In Hollywood, California, I’m here with superstar Manny Pacquiao, boxing’s most exciting fighter, and trainer world-famous Freddie Roach.
And from Atlantic City, we have promoter Bob Arum who is there with Kelly Pavlik as he attempts to dethrone Jermain Taylor this weekend in their middleweight world championship.
We’re nine days away from ‘Will To Win” — a four-bout pay-per-view extravaganza that will be headlined by Manny Pacquiao and Marco Antonio Barrera in a twelve round super featherweight rumble. It’s a fight we’ve been looking forward to for many, many years.
The first fight was very exciting and we expect nothing less this time. It’ll be coming live from Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas. And of course it’ll be seen live on HBO pay per view beginning at 9:00 pm East coast and 6:00 pm Pacific. So without any further ado, it’s my pleasure to introduce Hall of Fame promoter and co-promoter of the fight, Bob Arum.
Bob Arum: Welcome to everybody on this conference call. Manny arrived in the United States in Los Angeles last Saturday night. He trained extensively for the fight in the Philippines in Cebu City.
He was accompanied in his training by the great trainer Freddie Roach who supervised the training. And rather than me go into how great Manny looks, et cetera, I prefer you hear it first hand from Freddie Roach who spent all that time in the Philippines getting Manny ready for the fight. Freddie.
Freddie Roach: Manny, we trained in Cebu for six weeks and we had a great training camp. Very hot and humid there but good for the fighter to work out in. And we had great sparring partners. I brought two sparring partners from America, (Bill Trensp?) and (David Rozella).
And we had two sparring partners from the Philippines. And we boxed about 130 rounds. And we had a great training camp and we’re just finishing up here at the Wild Card. We had a great workout yesterday and we have the media workout today of course. And Manny’s going to box a little bit with that.
And he weighs 132 pounds right now. He’s ready to go. He’s just anxious and I’m actually going to start holding back a little bit and save a little of that energy for the fight.
Bob Arum: Thank you Freddie. And now it’s my pleasure to introduce the man who without any doubt, at least any doubt in this corner, is the pound-for-pound best fighter in boxing today because of the way he fights and because of the way he handles and can dominate his opponent.
He’s in with a tough cagey veteran in Marco Antonio Barrera who every time you think he’s down, comes back better than ever. But Manny Pacquiao is the best pound-for-pound fighter in boxing. And I at least have no doubt about the result of the fight. So, now a pleasure to put on the call the pride of the Philippines, Manny Pacquiao.
Manny Pacquiao: Hello everybody. Thank you Bob and coach Freddie and also to all the people I love boxing and to all my fans. Thank you very much and I’m ready to fight.
Ryan Macalua: Hi Manny. Many are saying for Barrera to beat you he needs to run around the ring and box while you chase him. What do you think about this style? And do you have anything prepared if he comes out with this style to beat you on fight night?
Manny Pacquiao: I know he’s going to bounce me. We know that already and we’re prepared on that. And even if it’s coming, we’ve prepared everything. Freddie Roach he gives me a lot of techniques.
pound-for-pound fighter to many. Many people have called you out in the 135 division; to name a few, Diaz and Casamayor. Do you have any desire to move up in weight if you get past Barrera?
Manny Pacquiao: Well we have a plan on that but right now we’re focusing to our upcoming fight. Let’s finish this job. After that, we’ll talk about it.
Ryan Macalua: And Freddie Roach. I have a question for you.
Freddie Roach: Yep.
Ryan Macalua: Marco Antonia Barrera, a couple of days in his conference call, was concerned about you talking about him using his hand wrap.
Freddie Roach: Yeah.
Ryan Macalua: Also the fact that you should worry about your own fighter. Also questioning your training ability. What do you have to say about this?
Freddie Roach: Well I don’t think hand wraps have anything to do with my training ability, but I feel that he wraps in excessively. And when Manny fought him in Texas, we complained to the commission about that.
The commission was in my favor and said that it was not a legal wrap. And so we just made him wrap legally. So, you know, Marco I’m taking care of my fighter and making sure that you don’t break any rules.
Lance Pugmire: Hey Freddie, how did – when you talk about the training going well over there in the Philippines, there’s been some talk that Manny’s been a distracted fighter with a lot of commitments and a lot of responsibilities that he’s on the (10-2).
Did you see any of that? Are there any concerns from your perspective as you head into this fight?
Freddie Roach: None whatsoever because once we started training camp, that’s all we did. He played basketball for a couple weekends and I wasn’t happy about that. And I asked Manny to stop playing basketball. And he told me that was no problem. So four weeks before the fight we stopped the basketball and it’s just because I was afraid of injury.
But once we started training, there was no distractions whatsoever. Once Manny gets in that training mode in that gym, there’s no better fighter in the world that I’ve ever seen that trains harder than Pacquiao.
So we really had a good camp and we had great runs. We had these hill runs that were just monster hills and 45 minutes straight up. And Manny’s in – he’s in really, really good shape and I’m really happy where he’s at right now.
Lance Pugmire: Okay. Great. Thanks Freddie. And for Manny, do you feel as if you’re in better shape than you were even for last fight? I know at the end of last fight, you almost had – it looked like you had like a little emotional breakdown like you were just relieved that you had gotten through that fight and gotten victory with everything that was going on with the election and all that.
Do you feel like you’re in better shape this time or less distracted or can you compare the two training camps and how you feel going into this fight?
Manny Pacquiao: Right now I’m 100% conditioned and I feel good and I feel ready to fight. The same way we did the last three fights.
Dan Rafael: Let me start with Manny. You know there’s a rematch of course between you and Barrera and you won the first fight so overwhelmingly and so easily, is it in any way hard not to be over confident seeing as how easily you beat him the first time? And now, of course, it’s several years later and, you know, it would be impossible to think that Barrera is better now than he was then.
Manny Pacquiao: Well, I don’t know. I don’t want to give this fight over confidence and give him a chance for revenge. And that’s why I work hard this fight and I train hard to get in shape (unintelligible).
Dan Rafael: Manny do you ever go back and look at the original fight for any reason or do you just do that – Marco spent a lot of time with us on the phone I believe yesterday or Tuesday saying that it was a bad night and, you know, that was basically it. Do you – is there anything that you look at in the first fight that you plan to do sort of the same in the second fight?
Manny Pacquiao: Well I know he’s – right now he’s out planning some techniques for this coming fight but, you know, those are his reasons to why he lose. You know, I don’t know that. I don’t have to comment on that. It was what he told on himself that he (unintelligible) on the fight. So we’ll see on October 6 really the stuff in the first fight.
Dan Rafael: Hey Freddie can you address that also? You were with Manny of course in the first fight. You know, I have a hard time thinking that Marco is better now that he was five years ago even though he’s had some big wins since the first fight with Manny. What is your assessment of the way the first fight if it means anything as guys go into the rematch next week?
Freddie Roach: Well I’m sure he has to make some adjustments from the first fight till now and he’s not going to fight us the same way obviously because it wasn’t successful the first time. And, no, we expect him to be in that counterpunch mode and fight at a slow pace and we’re just not going to let that happen.
Manny’s a great pressure fighter and, you know, we have some new tricks we’re working on. And Manny’s responding very well to it. And, you know, I still think Manny’s a very teachable guy and he’s still learning. And I don’t think he’s peaked yet. And he’s getting better all the time.
And I think, you know, I think Manny’s a much better fighter now than he was the first time they fought. And I think he’s the much stronger and much better puncher at his weight. Now at 130 he’s very comfortable and I just, you know, whatever Barrera decides to do. If he wants to fight us, if he decides that, I don’t think he can outfight us and I don’t think he can outbox us either. So we’re ready for whatever he brings.
Dan Rafael: Do you think – I mean, do you do ever use the first fight anyway when you talk to Manny about how to approach the second fight or do you try to put that out of his mind so he doesn’t get over confident because of the fact that he won that first fight so handily? I mean, it’d be one – it’d be a different matter if it was a very close fight I guess is what I’m saying.
Freddie Roach: It was. I do watch that fight a couple of times just to, you know, just refresh my memory of the attack and how we handle him and how it worked and so forth. And I watched tapes of his last couple fights also just to see the difference in style and so forth.
And, you know, Marco has become much more of a counter puncher now and wants to fight at a slow pace. And basically we just can’t let that happen.
Dan Rafael: And let me ask Manny one other question. Manny you know this fight would not have happened had Top Rank and Golden Boy not been able to settle their differences, many of which were related to this situation that you had with your own contract.
How happy are you or relieved are you that that mess is over with and whatever happened that you were able to now get the highest profile fights possible because of the settlement?
Manny Pacquiao: Well I’m happy that the fight goes through and everything is going great.
Salvador Rodriguez: Manny can you explain your strategy for the fight with Barrera on October 6. And do you find any difference between the fight in 2003 and for this year?
Manny Pacquiao: I think there’s some difference on this side because I’m favored now – I’m favored on this fight and the last fight I’m underdog so that’s the difference. Our fighting styles might be different this time too
Salvador Rodriguez: Is there any difference with your style? You are very safe, very aggressive, these have a you go to the front. Yeah. But which difference do you found within the fight in 2003 and 2007. This Barrera has a (unintelligible) troubles, many (unintelligible) troubles and Barrera is now focused on you. What about you?
Manny Pacquiao: Well I’m able to fight. I’m always focused in my fight and, you know, I don’t want to, you know, make many excuses after the fight. And that’s why I always put myself in 100% condition and get ready and to do the fight.
Salvador Rodriguez: Yeah and this for Freddie. Freddie can you explain us something about the training of Manny Pacquiao. Any difference between LA and Philippines please?
ddie Roach: You know, give us a ring and a place to train and we have no difference in the two spots. We had a great training camp. We brought the right sparring partners in for the fight. We had great sparring. Great camp.
And the heat and humidity was very, very hot and hard to work in the heat of course but it prepared us for the fight because it’s going to be a hot fight and given with the lights and so forth for the TV. And Manny just, you know, I’m not worried about Barrera at all. I just put Manny at his best and I think Manny’s best will do the job.
Salvador Rodriguez: And the next question is can you tell me your pick for the October 6 please including Bob Arum please?
Bob Arum: I think that it’ll be a great fight. It’ll be a very competitive fight. And I look for Manny to win by a stoppage in the late rounds.
Freddie Roach: And I agree with Bob. I think it’s going to be a great fight till it ends. Marco’s a very tough opponent and he’s very resilient. He’ll fight hard, but I think Manny will catch him in the late rounds and it’ll be great – it’ll be really hard fight until that happens.
Manny Pacquiao: Now for me I just do my best to give a good fight and to make people happy. And I want to everybody enjoy and happy in that fight.
Steve Carp:: Could you talk a little bit about these so called distractions that you’ve dealt with during your Philippines training and how you seem to thrive in the midst of all this chaos with people pulling at you?
Manny Pacquiao: There’s no distraction when we train in the Philippines. Like Freddie said that during my training I’m very focused and concentrating to the fight and to our training.
Bob Arum: Steve this is Bob. You have to understand that Manny is so huge in the Philippines that they write about him every day and they look for things to write. Everything gets magnified out of all proportions. A lot of things that you read are just not true. And Manny and Freddie both told me that there was no distractions in training for this fight.
Steve Carp: But I know Manny’s got a lot of endeavors Bob whether it’s owning a basketball team, whether it was his run for Congress, whether it’s his charitable endeavors, he does have a lot of people pulling at him. And I just want to ask Manny if he thrives in that kind of environment where he’s constantly busy with things related to his boxing.
Freddie Roach: I can answer that pretty well because one thing about Manny is once, you know, once we start boxing camp, nothing takes place. Nothing’s more important to Manny. And once he starts training for a fight, there’s no distractions whatsoever. It’s a 100% fight. He sleeps, he goes to bed at 9:00 at night.
We get up at 6:00 am in the morning. We do our road work. We never miss a day. We don’t miss days in gym. He had great sparring for the fight. We had no distractions whatsoever.
On Sunday, his day off, nice and casual; takes it easy. Sometimes he gets up and runs on me because I want him to take a day off and sometimes he doesn’t want to. But like last Sunday he did run again.
But the thing is, you know, Manny, when it comes to training mode, there’s never been a better fighter that trains harder than Pacquiao. And the thing is all these distractions go away even in the Philippines. There’s a lot of people pulling for him yes, I know, but, you know, once we start training camp, we don’t let that get in the way.
Bob Arum: Yes Steve, you see, before he goes to training camp, it’s tough to get a hold of him. He’s busy with everything, doing a million things.
Steve Carp: Right.
Bob Arum: Like Freddie says, once the training camp starts, he’s as dedicated, more dedicated than any fighter that Freddie’s handled.
Steve Carp: Yeah. I guess what I wanted to ask him then – maybe I should clarify this by asking him about, you know, when he’s not training for the fight, when he’s got all these other, you know, things going on in his life, how he thrives in that kind of environment. Maybe that’s a better way of putting it.
Freddie Roach: I can help a little. Yeah, because does, you know, TV shows and movies and so forth. I mean he again is very busy when he’s not fighting and so forth. And he’s getting pulled in a lot of directions and so forth.
He’s a very busy person, but again, I always wait for that day waiting for him to get distracted from his training and when he’s not going to be so disciplined. But that hasn’t happened yet and I don’t think it will happen until his career is over.
Steve Carp: All right. Well let me then try to wrap this up in asking Manny how he handles being a national treasure as he is perceived to be back home. How does he deal with that?
Manny Pacquiao: In the Philippines I have a lot of things to do when I don’t have fights. And I’m busy in my (son) business there and, you know, making movie and making some something that, you know, I do for my family too. That’s what I do during the time I don’t have a fight.
Steve Carp: Yeah but you help a lot of people Manny, not just your family. I mean, people come to your house and you help them and people you don’t even know. And it’s part of, I guess, what your makeup is back home as a national hero. Could you just talk about, you know, why you feel an obligation to give of yourself to the entire country?
Manny Pacquiao: Being as a national treasure and, you know, they call me hero in the Philippines, you know, I earned that and, you know, I’m very humbled that they call me national hero because I have big responsibility to especially to my countrymen and to my (unintelligible). You know, I’m still humble and still simple man and, you know, same as before. There’s no changes with my life.
Frank Garza: Hello. This question is for Bob Arum. Bob with this upcoming fight, the Will to Win and earlier this year we had De La Hoya versus Mayweather, and we’ve got Taylor-Pavlik coming up and later on in the year Mayweather-Hadden, is there anyway that anyone can ever say right now that boxing is dead? And if we’re having this all within one year, what more can we expect in the future?
Bob Arum: Well, we can expect great fights. I mean, promoters now want to put on the best fights. The fighters want to put on fights against be best opponents. One of the fights, there’s so many good fights; you’ve left out a number of fights.
There’s Kodo and Mosley in November. There’s Guzman and Soto in November. There are some great fights for the rest of the year. And I really believe that next year is going to be better.
I think people in boxing have a wake-up call and not looking to put on fights between a top fighter and a secondary fighter. The best should fight the best. And if the best fight the best, boxing is the most exciting, entertaining sport bar none.
Frank Garza: Is this in response to the UFC? That’s, it’s kind of like answering the question of competition. The best thing that the promoters could do was to go head to head with the UFC and put on the best bouts necessary and let the chips fall where they fall?
Bob Arum: No I think it was more fundamental than that. I think that there was a feeling that why not do fights that performed at a certain level and without much care as to who the opponents were, et cetera, because there wasn’t any longer any real big money in the sport of boxing.
And then Oscar’s fight with Floyd Mayweather, which set all kinds of records for revenue now, woke everybody up. Said hey, we keep putting big fights, good fights on, we’re going to hit the jackpot with some tremendous attractive shows.
Because we’re going to bring back people and they’re there. They’re there to buy the pay per view as witnessed 2.1 million people buying the pay per view of De La Hoya-Mayweather.
So I think it was the result, the financial result, in De La Hoya-Mayweather that gave everybody in boxing the incentive to start making great matches to build up huge events.
William Trillo: Manny, what’s the difference in you mentally and physically in the first fight with Marco and this fight coming up?
Manny Pacquiao: For me there’s no difference from the first one to this coming on October 6.
William Trillo: Freddie my question for you there’s no question in my mind that Marco’s gloves were skinned when he fought Juarez in his rematch in Vegas. Are you planning on taking a good look at that when he’s wrapping up for this bout?
Freddie Roach: Yeah I am. The thing was when he fought Morales the last time and he was the winning glove, his wraps were so big, they had to cut the gloves to get the wraps inside. And I think that’s – obviously if you think about it, you know, he had to actually cut the gloves to get your hand inside, something’s a little dodgy there.
So, you know, I’m going to make and issue of the hand wraps and I’m going to make sure that he wraps legally. That’s all I want.
William Trillo: Great. Bob, last question. Who do you expect to see filling the house more, Philippine contingency or the Hispanic contingency?
Bob Arum: Well, I – it’s hard – well, it’s not hard for me tell. I think there’s a tremendous outpouring from the Philippine fans. I think they’re buying tickets. At least the tickets that are being sold out o our office are primarily tickets being bought by Filipinos. But, we’ll see. We’ll see.
I think when Erik and Manny fought, it was, you know, 60-40 Mexican to Filipinos. I think here it may very well be 60-40 Filipinos to Mexicans. We’ll have to see. Whatever it is, it’s going to be great excitement. And the fans are loyal fans, both the Filipino fans and the Mexican fans. And it’s going to be an electric night.
And I want to tell everybody, you know, this Saturday in Atlantic City, there’s a great fight on HBO, Jermain Taylor against Kelly Pavlik. And after that fight, HBO is going to do a 30-minute countdown show on Manny and Marco Antonio Barrera. Going to showcase both fighters.
It’s tremendous footage of Manny training in the Philippines and going around in the Philippines. It’s a – Ross Greenburg told me this morning it’s a tremendous 30 minute show. And the countdown show, which will run all week, will – the first premiere of the countdown show will be immediately following the Taylor-Pavlik fight. So look for that on Saturday night.
Fred Sternburg: We’re going to have to start wrapping up because Manny’s got a media workout in about a half hour here in LA. So, if we can have everyone make final statements. Freddie, you know, when you look at the two Manny Pacquiao’s from the first fight with Barrera to now, what do you see in terms of difference between the two fighters?
Freddie Roach: He’s a much more mature fighter now and he’s much stronger at – he’s used to the weight now, 130 is very strong. I mean, you know, he’s becoming more of a complete fighter. And the thing is Manny, again, he’s still learning and we’re trying a few new things and I think you’re going to see the best Manny Pacquiao yet.
Fred Sternburg: Thank you Freddie. Manny, a closing statement from you before we head off to the workout.
Manny Pacquiao: I would like to invite all the people, all my fans, and all the people loves boxing and don’t miss this fight. It’s going to be a great fight. And don’t forget to buy pay-per- view. Thanks.
Fred Sternburg: Bob, anything for your last words?
Bob Arum: Yeah. Marco Antonio Barrera is a very intelligent fighter. And he’s going to fight a much better fight than he found the first time. Because the first time, you know, he didn’t know very much about Manny and he went in there feeling that he was just fighting some ordinary fighter. And of course he learned his lesson.
So he’s going to be a lot better. His plan is going to be better and he’s going to fight a much more intelligent fight.
On the other hand, Manny Pacquiao, as Freddie said, is much, much improved over the time he first fought Marco Antonio Barrera. He’s learning every fight. Freddie has instilled some great, great skills in Manny that he lacked early on.
So, it’s going to be a different fight from the first fight. It’s going to be a great fight. And I am confident the end of the day, the pound-for-pound currently the Manny Pacquiao will still be the pound-for-pound champion in boxing.
Fred Sternburg: Well thank you everybody. Just a reminder, fight week starts next week. We’ll have open workouts of both fighters scheduled on Tuesday.
The final press conference at Mandalay Bay will be Wednesday. The official weigh-in will be Friday at 2:30 pm Pacific time.
October 6 — “Will to Win,” a four fight pay per view extravaganza headlined by the rematch of Manny Pacquiao and Marco Antonio Barrera at Mandalay Bay promoted by Top Rank and Golden Boy Promotions.
It’ll be seen live on HBO pay per view beginning at 9:00 pm East coast, 6:00 pm Pacific. Thank you everybody for attending. We’ll have a transcript out to you by tomorrow. And we look forward to seeing you in Las Vegas.