Teacher, pupil get down to basics: 'Hit him and stay away'

BAGUIO CITY, Philippines – The dos and don’ts of this fight, according to the Freddie Roach manual, is out.

During yesterday’s two-hour workout at the Cooyeesan Hotel, the trainer and his fighter, Manny Pacquiao, mapped out their plan on how to dislodge Miguel Cotto as the WBO welterweight champion on Nov. 14.

Roach and Pacquiao pounded the mitts for 14 rounds non-stop, and most of the time as they were up on the ring they discussed the ways to keep the fight in control. It was teacher and pupil at work before a small, hushed crowd.

Roach often whispered things to Pacquiao, sometimes holding on to the boxer’s shoulders just to make sure he drives the point home, and there were times they smiled at each other as if they already know exactly well what to do, how to do it.

“Remember, don’t try to win the exchange,” said Roach, reminding the reigning pound-for-pound champion that Cotto, younger, bigger and stronger, is more heavy-handed, and getting into an exchange may not be to their advantage.

“Hit him then stay away. Hit him then stay away. If you can hit him and dance all night then dance all night,” said Roach, who took a couple of heavy hits to the body, and felt it all despite the two-inch thick body armor that he wore.

There was one particular shot, a hook to the body, that caught Roach real hard, and a couple of times, too, one of his mitts came out flying because of Pacquiao’s right uppercuts.

Pacquiao listened each time Roach said a word.

“Don’t just stand there after the two (of the one-two combination). Move to his side. Stay on the side. And when you throw your jab don’t stay in front of him. Again, if you can dance all night, then dance all night,” the trainer said.

A number of times, Pacquiao threw punches, in combinations, that made his trainer happy.

“That’s the shot. That’s the shot,” he told Pacquiao, who just kept on asking for more each time the bell sounded.

“There was a shot to the kidney and it took the wind out of me I couldn’t breathe for a second,” said the trainer, more impressed with the way Pacquiao handled the mitts than when he did handling his sparring partners the other day.

“He was better than yesterday but that was with the mitts. The job here is to bring what he does to the mitts to fight night,” Roach added.

Pacquiao was pushed around the ring by Shawn Porter, a junior-middleweight and one of two sparring partners here, the other one being Urbano Antillon, in sparring that Roach had to declare that Pacquiao was only “forty percent” ready.

But by the time they move out of Baguio to the Wild Card Gym in Los Angeles on Oct. 24 or three weeks before the fight, Pacquiao would be and should be “80 to 90 percent” ready.

From the ring, Pacquiao spent a little more time pounding the speed ball, the double-end bag, working the ropes, shadow boxing, and doing close to a thousand crunches, all part of his daily routine.

On his way out of the gym, a bunch of scribes from Manila stopped and tried to get his thoughts.

“The camp is going on smoothly,” Pacquiao said in Filipino. “Maganda. It’s okay because we still have six weeks to go. And I like it here in Baguio. I think I’ll train here even for my next fight. Gusto ko dito.”

Asked if he was indeed having a hard time against Porter, who caught him with some good punches the other day, Pacquiao just smiled.

“Everything’s okay. It’s okay. I love the challenge.”