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Pacquiao adviser Michael Koncz not allowed into the Wild Card?

Written by: fightsportsonline on 26th January 2010

Photo:Chris Farina/Top Rank

Michael Koncz pictured at a Press Conference for "The Dream Match: Oscar De La Hoya vs. Manny Pacquiao" at the Statue of Liberty in New York on October 1, 2008. © RD / Dziekan / Retna Digital | read this item

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The latest from camp Pacquiao is that there isn’t any sign of adviser Michael Koncz in the immediate vicinity of the Wild Card gym where Manny began his training today for his upcoming fight against tough Ghanian challenger Joshua Clottey.

The rumor is that he’s currently being kept out of the training process by the powers that be in the gym, namely Freddie Roach and Alex Ariza. There are also certainly a lot of preparations being made by Koncz for the upcoming election, which probably has more to do with why he isn’t in the picture at the camp rather than being banned.

By all accounts although others don’t get along with Koncz too well Manny himself finds plenty of uses for him, and its a rare occasion to see either without the other nearby these days.

During the last few camps, tensions between various members of Manny’s team spilled over and various groups fought (literally in one case) for control of Manny’s schedule and training arrangements.

If the absence of Koncz is anything to go by though the details are firmly in the hands of Freddie Roach this time around.

It could be that either like the warring factions inside the camp have finally made peace and are working together for once, or that one side has had to concede this particular battle.

Either idea makes sense, although hopefully this time everyone is just on the same page for once and not squabbling over scraps from Manny’s table.

Obviously for Koncz, trying to control many of the details in a gym Roach owns is probably a lot more difficult than picking his own sparring partners or booking Roach and Ariza into a different hotel than Manny in the Philippines.

The distractions that usually go along with a Manny Pacquiao training camp, the infighting, hordes of fans following the star everywhere he goes, not to mention the celebrity fans who want to meet him, doesn’t seem to affect the champion too much.

Whether his trainers and essential staff are quite so easy going about the media circus that all want a piece of him isn’t so clear. More than likely they would prefer if people just left them alone to do their jobs, but then again it isn’t every day you work with a 7 weight world champion. Especially someone with such a wide spread fan base.

Either way though, the closed door policy of Pacquiao’s training this time around does tell us that he isn’t taking Clottey lightly, no matter what the odds might say.

Despite the fact that Clottey was beaten by Miguel Cotto who Manny then dismantled, I can see Clottey being a more difficult match up for Pacquiao than Cotto was.

There is the issue of ring rust for Clottey, but excluding that he is always a tough fight for anyone at welterweight and might give Manny some problems early on.

Topics: Boxing, Freddie Roach, Joshua Clottey, Manny Pacquiao

shin says:

February 5, 2010 at 12:58 PM

Manny Pacquaio really need to retire and clean out the people around him. If Koncz is making trouble while in the gym then I can understand that. However, if he wants to be there because Manny is there then I don’t see any problem with that.

Koncz and his trainers are paid by Pacquaio they should work in the best interest of Pacquaio and not on themselves. If this true that Koncz is not allow in the gym then Pacquaio need to find a new trainer who would work in his best interest and not on themselves unless training with Roach is free then yes, he has to put up with it.