PACQUIAO’S CUTMAN COULD PLAY A MAJOR ROLE

Everything that has been said or written about Manny Pacquiao’s preparation for the November 12 trilogy with Juan Manual Marquez at the MGM Grand Las Vegas has been about his well documented training sessions with Freddie Roach and his conditioning routine with Alex Ariza.

From those end, there has been no stone left unturned.

Pacquiao has been trained exceedingly well by Freddie Roach and has fully mastered the main game plan. From what I have seen, he even has an excellent Plan B although there may not be a need for that.

Alex Ariza has done a hell of a job too in gradually conditioning Pacquiao to last even well past round 12. The man has developed Pacquiao into a superbly oiled fighting machine that can fire not only high volume of punches from all conceivable angles but punches that carry tremendous power behind them as well.

Pacquiao’s power can be clearly seen when he hits the heavy bag. The bag flies almost horizontally when he hits it with one of his well documented power shots. I have yet to see any of the gym rats at the Wildcard Gym demonstrate such power hitting the heavy bag.

With all of the possible training and conditioning angles fully covered, only one issue, albeit a very important one, needs to be addressed.

The cutman.

The choice of the cutman must be addressed delicately considering the seriousness of the issue.

As we all know, this fellow can make or break the fight and all the training done with Freddie Roach or the conditioning with Alex Ariza will be rendered moot if the cutman does not performed to the max.

Hopefully whoever makes the choice will make it based on the full capabilities of the cut man.

Age, experience and the number of fights the cutman has been involved with must not be the only factors that must be considered.

And certainly, friendship and “connections” and any “other deals” must not play important roles in the choice of the cutman.

The cutman must have proper training and experience in handling injuries that result in bleeding.

For a fight of this magnitude, he must have the proper medical background to address the injuries and the frame of mind honed by constant daily exposure to issues involving injuries that includes a lot of blood.

Most importantly, he must himself have the ability to legally prescribe and procure the medications needed to address injuries that may occur in the ring. And, for whatever it is worth, must have a working knowledge of “infection control”. Example: Not keeping a Q-tip between his teeth and breathing germs all over it as he works on the boxer.

In addition, he must be using only medications that are approved and purchased in this country where there is a strict drug quality control. None of those supposedly “effective medications” whose contents are not even seen let alone approved by the FDA.

The use of the most common medication (1:1000 epinephrine) alone is not sufficient. The cutman must have other alternatives to use in case epinephrine does not address the issue as quickly and effectively as needed.

Let’s not have another Jorge Linares incident during the Pacquiao-Marquez fight. Linares fought Antonio de Marco several weeks ago at the Staples Center in Los Angeles. He lost a title fight he was leading on points on all the three judges’ score cards because the cutman failed in his job to handle the injuries to Linares.

As Alex Ariza told this writer, Linares lost because the cutman “did not have the right stuff” to handle the situation.

What a sad situation.

Hopefully, Manny Pacquiao himself will put his foot on this issue and have a big say on who will be the 4th man and important man in his corner.

He may not necessarily need it because he can end the fight early; even before any cuts occurs.

But on the outside chance an early ending does not occur and the fight is dragged into the deep waters and cuts and bruises occur, he must have a very competent man in his corner to address the issue.

Pointing fingers after fact, as in the Linares fight, would do no good.

Source: PhilBoxing.com