24/7 Pacquiao/Margarito – Episode 3
Pacquiao looks a lot better in his marathon sparring session.
One of his sparring partners sparred with Antonio Margarito and he broke his orbital bone and it nearly ended his boxing career. He thinks it may be because of Margarito’s hand wraps.
Margarito says that he doesn’t cheat. And he’s answered that question the same over the last two years. In a great heel line, he says Pacquiao may think he’s hitting him with plaster, but it’s just going to be his hands.
Margarito doesn’t care about circling away from the power hand. He just cuts the ring off and brings pressure. He’s sparring with all lefties and doing so with a jacket on. I’m guessing it’s to help him cut weight.
Robert Garcia keeps his gym open late so that the kids can come in and stay off the streets.
Manny says he’s not going to gain more weight because he feels sluggish heavy. His conditioning coach says he trained for Clottey at 153 pounds and Pacquiao is only going to weigh-in at 147-148. Margarito could be upwards of 20 pounds heavier than him on fight night.
Roach says he at first thought it was going to be a close fight. But not anymore. He thinks it’s going to be an easy fight. Garcia says he’s never done predictions with his fighter, but he has no doubt that Margarito is going to stop Pacquiao in the late rounds.
Margarito doesn’t think Pacquiao’s going to be able to hit hard enough. Roach says they’re going to knock out Margarito.
Thoughts:
I think it was the worst episode thus far, but it was still good. Because of how confident Roach and Pacquiao were, I wonder if the training issues were just a smoke screen because there wasn’t much conflict.
Margarito was more subtle in his heel mannerisms and I think it’s the right move. However, based on what I heard about what he did recently, he may have gone overboard.
