With two unimpressive victories and a loss during his last three fights, Manny Pacquiao is headed for another lackluster performance in his forthcoming match scheduled for November 10, if he continues to be hounded by unnecessary distractions in his training camp.
The eight-division world champion may have realized in his last three fights that he was confronted with so many distractions while preparing for his fights.
During his training camp in preparation for his fight with long-time foe Juan Manuel Marquez at the MGM Grand in November last year, he was confronted with issues ranging from politics to marital woes which continued to hound him while on training.
While preparing for his fight last year, Pacquiao was a picture of an overconfident fighter without regard for the skill and talent of the Mexican fighter.
He paid dearly for his actions after Marquez practically gave him a boxing lesson but was lucky the judges declared him the winner via majority decision which did not please Mexican and some Filipino fans in the audience.
Shortly before facing Marquez last year, Pacquiao's marriage to Jinkee was reported to be on the rocks with the champ being served with divorce papers which were later denied by the champ.
The report though seemed incredible as there are no divorce laws in the Philippines where they got married.
But Pacquiao's trainer, Freddie Roach seemed to have confirmed that indeed there were distractions leading to the Marquez fight.
"All the distractions caught up to Manny in his last fight," Road said via ABS-CBN News right after Pacquiao's narrow victory over Marquez.
But even in his fight with Shane Mosley prior to his showdown with Marquez, Pacquiao had already shown sluggishness in the ring — far from the ring mastery he showed his audience during his encounter with Antonio Margarito.
Although a great majority of boxing fans from around the world, believe he won convincingly over unbeaten Palm Spring star Timothy Bradley, still they could not find the usual Pacquiao speed and power he is known for as he tried to put Bradley down to please his adoring fans.
Roach, who has been coaching Pacquiao for over a decade, still feels his favorite fighter has been subjected to constant distractions since he last trained for the Margarito fight, although he acknowledged Pacquiao has successfully warded off distractions during the Bradley controversial fight.
Still, non-political and marital distractions linger on during the Bradley fight like Strength and Condittioning Coach Alex Ariza's abandonment of the Baguio training camp in favor of the more lucrative Chavez training camp.
Despite assurances from Roach that Pacquiao has given up his vices, which include "girls and everything that goes with it," it seems distractions in other forms would still remain—like his new-found Bible reading crusade.
"Now, he's back with his wife, reading the Bible every day, and he's given up basketball," the now happy coach said.
Aware of possible distractions in Pacquiao's Baguio training camp in the Philippines, promoter Bob Arum has made sure Pacquiao moves to Roach's Wild Card Gym in Hollywood for the full training camp in preparation for his Nov.10 fight with either Marquez or Bradley.
But isn't his Bible crusade a form of distraction in his training camp? If it is not, then Pacquiao would be on his way to a potential 5or 6-fight winning streak, assuming he retires before 2016 when he runs for a seat in the Philippine Senate.
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