Manny Pacquiao, Freddie Roach and Bob Arum: Teleconference Call Transcript

From the Pacquiao Training Compound, General Santos City, Philippines…

MANNY PACQUIAO, FREDDIE ROACH & BOB ARUM

Teleconference Call Transcript, Thursday, October 23.

FRED STERNBURG: Mabuhay! Good morning, good afternoon, good evening for wherever you are in the world. It’s kind of late out here in General Santos City in the Philippines at Manny Pacquiao’s compound and with four weeks to go it will be Manny Pacquiao defending his WBO welterweight title against New York’s undefeated junior welterweight world champion Chris Algieri on November 22 at the Venetian Macao. That fight, plus three others, will be televised live on pay-per-view in the U.S., beginning at 9 PM ET / 6 PM PT. Manny went eight rounds today with Mike Jones and undefeated No. 1 contender Viktor Postol sparring four rounds each. Training is going every well and Manny is ahead of schedule. Manny and trainer Freddie Roach will be with you in a moment but now I would like to introduce Hall of Fame Promoter Bob Arum.

BOB ARUM: It is good to be here and thank you all for getting up so early in the morning. It is 9 PM here is General Santos City and as Fred said the training is going extraordinarily well. I know from everybody who has seen Chris Algieri train in New York and now Las Vegas talks about how good his training has been and I look forward to a tremendous fight on November 22.

FREDDIE ROACH: We have had a great training camp so far wit the workouts with Manny. Last time we began with four rounds and this time my first day in camp we went 12 rounds and Manny wasn’t even breathing. We have had a great start, probably the best start we have ever had and sparring has been going very well – we have over 35 rounds of sparring in so far and we have some great sparring partners (Viktor) Postol the number one contender in the world, Mike Jones who is a big 147-pounder and Stan Martyniouk, from San Francisco. All the guys are tall and I think some guys are better than our opponent, but we will see very soon.

MANNY PACQUIAO: Hello everyone and thanks for being on the call. I am excited again to fight against a tall opponent like Chris Algieri. I have fought tall guys like Algieri before so I know what it will be like when I get in the ring with him on November 22.

What is your biggest concern with Algieri?

FREDDIE ROACH: He is a pretty good mover. He moves pretty well and he is very defensive. He has a good jab – one of the best in h business — and he has a good left hand. His jab is his best weapon and it is something that we have to really take care of.

We saw you have been playing basketball in the Philippines. Does that take away from your focus? Does it benefit your training?

MANNY PACQUIAO: It does not affect my training because basketball is on Sunday and we do not train on Sunday. Basketball is also good for footwork and balancing. It helps a lot and that is why I am always in shape when I don’t have a fight because I am always playing basketball. Basketball provides me with great cross-training.

Algieri has said he is very confident in being able to defeat you despite the difference in experience. Have you paid any attention to that?

MANNY PACQUIAO: I am aware of his feeling but I am also confident that I am going to win the fight. I know he is doing his best in training and I am doing my best in training so the fans are going to see a good fight.

FRED STERNBURG: FYI — Bob mentioned earlier that the basketball game he played last Sunday was going to be the only basketball game that Manny will play during training camp.

It seems as though Algieri has come from nowhere – is he a worthy opponent at this stage?

FREDDIE ROACH: Well Algieri did just beat one of the best punchers in the world. He got off the deck twice and he showed a lot of heart. He definitely deserves to be there It’s going to be a great fight. That’s why we are training so hard for this fight and that’s why we have such good sparring partners because we are not taking him lightly at all.

MANNY PACQUIAO: We are not taking him lightly for this fight and we are training hard for this fight because of what he proved in the Ruslan fight.

Do you plan to continue coaching the basketball team leading up to the fight?

MANNY PACQUIAO: No, right now I have an assistant coach and he will coach the basketball team. Right now I am focused on my training. After the fight I will come back to the team and be focused on coaching the team.

How was playing in the game and were you worried about being injured?

MANNY PACQUIAO: It was a good experience to play in a professional basketball game like that. I didn’t play long, I just wanted to help my team and that’s why I played. Professional basketball in the Philippines is very competitive and more importantly, we won the first game.

What was your feeling going into the first game?

MANNY PACQUIAO: I felt very excited and a little nervous because it was the first game and there were over 52,000 fans.

BOB ARUM: Well, I found out that he was playing before he played and I was not a very happy camper. Professional basketball, no matter the country where it is played, is a rugged sport and a player can turn an ankle very, very easily. These players in the NBA are fantastic physical specimens and yet they get injured all the time. An injury would have really wreaked havoc on the fight so I was not very pleased, but everyone has assured us – Manny has assured Freddie and Freddie has assured me that that’s it. After he does the fight on November 22nd, if he wants to try out for the New York Knicks, that’s OK with me.

The Knicks could use a point guard actually (laughter). Manny what do you enjoy more? Basketball? Boxing?

MANNY PACQUIAO: I am enjoying boxing, but my favorite sport outside of boxing is basketball. That’s why I go to the basketball court – my cross training is basketball to keep in shape between fights. I also like basketball.

Algieri was knocked down twice by Provodnikov. It seem like this may be the first time you can get a knockout. What do you think about that?

MANNY PACQUIAO: We cannot go into the fight thinking about the knockout. A knockout will not change the result of the fight as long as we get the win. What we are trying to do right now is to get the focus in training and for the fight that people want to see. Chris Algieri is a very dangerous fighter and we are taking nothing for granted in this training camp.

FREDDIE ROACH: We brought in some big sparring partners – Mike Jones is a really big puncher and so forth and Manny is doing really well with him and he’s hurt him a couple times in camp and he’s shown good power so far and he has shown the intensity that I want. When he hurts somebody he opens up on them and finished him. I told him if we hurt a sparring partner we just get another one. Training camp has been going really well and we have great sparring partners for this fight.

How bad do you want to see a knockout?

FREDDIE ROACH: I would love to see a knockout. I think at 147 he is a little smaller than most of the 147-pounders out there. We have to feed him five times a day for him to make that weight. This fight is at 144 and I think his power will come back. I see a knockout coming for sure.

Manny, are you hungry for a knockout?

MANNY PACQUIAO: I am still hungry and I am doing what I did before – what we did in Wild Card training in Hollywood. That’s what we are doing right now and it is good. Sparring and hitting the mitts and plyometrics so it is good.

Bob, a good knockout may add to marketability. Where do you stand on that situation?

BOB ARUM: Where do I stand on that situation? If someone goes up to the plate to hit a home run, he has less of a chance hitting a home run than a guy who goes up to the plate just to meet the ball. If the knockout comes, the knockout comes. But to go out and look for a knockout and to ignore other aspects of the fight, particularly against an intelligent fighter such as Algieri would be folly. Now if he gets a knockout, that’s great and absolutely increases the marketability, but you don’t go out there looking for the knockouts because if you do, you have less of a chance of getting it if you fight your normal fight.

What is the rationale of going back to Macau after fighting in USA?

BOB ARUM: HBO I am sure they never said they would never go back to China, and besides, who are they to say anything when it is my money, it’s Manny’s career and we are fighting in probably the best location in the world which is in Macao in the Cotai Arena, which is a tremendous place to watch a fight live. It’s really too bad that someone like yourself is not coming over to see why it is so desirable to see a big fight in the Cotai Arena in The Venetian Macao resort. Now, with that being said, half of the boxing card, which features fighters like Zou Shiming will be on the card. They said to me they wanted Manny to fight there once a year – so obviously if Manny fights twice a year, he fights there in the fall and in the spring, he fights either in the United States or some other place.

Did you ever think to say to Manny ‘Please concentrate on boxing only?’

BOB ARUM: No, that’s the way it happens. Manny said he was going to play in the opening game for his team, I didn’t say anything because Manny had decided that he wanted to do that and now it’s done. Once that happened I had a talk with him and he agreed that he wouldn’t do it any more till after the fight. That’s how it works when you are dealing in an environment with all adults.

Have you ever considered adding to the contract that you cannot do risky things and basketball is a risky thing?

BOB ARUM: Some of our fighters are motorcycle guys and did a lot of crazy things so there we definitely put it in the contract. But with Manny, you are absolutely right. We have a different kind of relationship, one built on a mutual respect and mutual trust and so we wouldn’t put it in the contract because of the fact we feel he will do the right thing.

Since we are talking about basketball a lot. Who do think is better at basketball – you or Floyd Mayweather?

MANNY PACQUIAO: (laughing) I don’t want to say myself, but Freddie said me.

What is a reasonable number for the PPV in your opinion?

BOB ARUM: I think we did quite well going back to last November – we did 475,000 buys for the Brandon Rios fight. For a fight that took place outside the country, I thought that was a great number. Now, with Chris Algieri getting the type of publicity that he is getting, which we never had before, for example, I don’t remember ever before, ever, and I am sure in the Ali days it was different, but I don’t remember recently a fight getting an article in The New Yorker magazine.

BOB ARUM: I get to sleep a little later so I can sit here and talk to you guys for hours but I’m not going to do it so good-bye.