Pacquiao to pay Nazario his last respects

MANILA - Before passing away, Manny Pacquiao’s former manager Rod Nazario had wished the boxing champ the best of luck in facing Puerto Rican champion Miguel Cotto.

Pacquiao, who was deeply saddened by Nazario’s death, visited the boxing manager a week before his passing.

“We talked about the Cotto fight,” Pacquiao told the Philippine Star. “Sabi niya sa akin ‘kaya mo yan basta gumalaw ka lang ng gumalaw. And he also reminded me not to be over-confident."

Pacquiao, who has begun training in Baguio for his November 14 fight with Cotto, said he will travel to Manila to pay his final respects to Nazario.

“Bababa ako,” he said.

Nazario was credited for bringing Pacquiao to the US in 2001 when the People’s Champ had his breakthrough fight with then IBF super bantamweight champion Lehlo Ledwaba. Pacquiao, who stepped into the fight as a late replacement, eventually won the title.

Nazario succumbed to lung cancer Thursday morning at the Perpetual Help of Rizal Hospital in Las Piñas City. He was 74.

Closed door taining

Pacquiao trained behind closed doors on Friday as his preparations for his showdown with Cotto have shifted to high gear.

For the first time since the boxing icon pitched camp in the country’s summer capital, where he would train for four to five weeks, the doors to the Shape Up Gym were closed even to Baguio-based mediamen.

Pacquiao started working out in Baguio last Monday, and the following day his chief trainer, Freddie Roach, and conditioning coach, Alex Ariza, flew in from Los Angeles to supervise the preparations.

Mike Koncz, the boxer’s Canadian adviser, said the doors to the gym will be opened to the media on Thursday when Pacquiao holds a media day. His promoter, Bob Arum of Top Rank, will be there on that day.

Even when he trains at the Wild Card Gym in Los Angeles, Pacquiao trains behind closed doors. But it was for the Ricky Hatton fight last May when stricter measures were put in place upon the orders of Roach.

Roach said he noticed that Pacquiao was “working out for the fans” and the three-time Trainer of the Year even ordered that Saturdays, normally reserved for the fans, be “off-limits” to those outside of Team Pacquiao.

Training behind closed doors gives Pacquiao and Roach more time to themselves as they begin mapping out the strategies and fightplan to be used on the ring against the wide-bodied, heavy-handed Cotto.

Source: http://www.abs-cbnnews.com/sports/09/25/09/nazario-believed-pacquiao-will-prevail-over-cotto