Pacquiao looks a lot better in his marathon sparring session.

One of his sparring partners sparred with Antonio Margarito and he broke his orbital bone and it nearly ended his boxing career. He thinks it may be because of Margarito’s hand wraps.

Margarito says that he doesn’t cheat. And he’s answered that question the same over the last two years. In a great heel line, he says Pacquiao may think he’s hitting him with plaster, but it’s just going to be his hands.

Margarito doesn’t care about circling away from the power hand. He just cuts the ring off and brings pressure. He’s sparring with all lefties and doing so with a jacket on. I’m guessing it’s to help him cut weight.

Robert Garcia keeps his gym open late so that the kids can come in and stay off the streets.

Manny says he’s not going to gain more weight because he feels sluggish heavy. His conditioning coach says he trained for Clottey at 153 pounds and Pacquiao is only going to weigh-in at 147-148. Margarito could be upwards of 20 pounds heavier than him on fight night.

Roach says he at first thought it was going to be a close fight. But not anymore. He thinks it’s going to be an easy fight. Garcia says he’s never done predictions with his fighter, but he has no doubt that Margarito is going to stop Pacquiao in the late rounds.

Margarito doesn’t think Pacquiao’s going to be able to hit hard enough. Roach says they’re going to knock out Margarito.

Thoughts:

I think it was the worst episode thus far, but it was still good. Because of how confident Roach and Pacquiao were, I wonder if the training issues were just a smoke screen because there wasn’t much conflict.

Margarito was more subtle in his heel mannerisms and I think it’s the right move. However, based on what I heard about what he did recently, he may have gone overboard.

Antonio Margarito’s trainer Robert Garcia was a fighter who retired at 26. He didn’t have it in him to hurt other guys. Or maybe he wasn’t that good. I’ll have to look him up.

He seems to be interested in the trainer game and says when his guy wins, he wants to hear that it’s because of his trainer.

Manny threw an impromptu wedding party for his advisor, and guess who took care of the music? Yep, Manny on the mic.

Roach thinks that Pacquiao’s speed isn’t there and he brought in Amir Khan to spar with Manny. Khan is lighting fast. Roach says the training camp overall has been up and down.

Garcia and Margarito watch Pacquiao’s last fight with Josh Clottey and notice how Clottey doesn’t throw punches. Yep, we all noticed that. Garcia thinks that there’s no way to Pac can match Margarito’s strength and thinks that it’s key to not get impatient or not be ready to throw punches.

Oh man. Team Margarito decided to joke about the hardened hand wraps. They jokingly put a stone slab over his hands and Garcia wrapped his hands. Well, now the California State Athletic Commission just added infinity to his suspension. Margarito also called Pac a “puto”. He’s going heel. Well, then again, he had to go heel.

Holy shit. One of Pac’s trainers just made the same comparison to Rocky III that I did in the last report. Roach says it’s the worst training camp. There was an interesting discussion where they asked Pac where he was going on Friday, and this was just after he landed at Wild Card. He played dumb for a bit but then remembered he had to be in Vegas for Bob Arum, which they saw as a distraction.

Thoughts:

I think this is exactly where the story has to go. It’s a really easy one this time. Margarito went heel completely with the joke about the hand wraps and calling Pac a disparaging name. And thus far, they are showing Pac as uncaring and not dedicated to his craft, which makes you immediately think an upset is coming. And that’s really how you have to sell this fight. A cheater is trying to take the champ’s belt and the champ needs to get back to being the best in order to not let it happen. Brilliant stuff.

I know I’m a week late to the party here, but I just haven’t gotten the chance to check it out until now.

Margarito says that beating Pacquiao will show that he didn’t know that he had anything in his gloves. Well, maybe to the general public. Not to people who follow this stuff.

Manny Pacquiao is excused from his congressional meetings while he trains, but he has a group that communicates with him, even in the middle of training if they have to. Freddie Roach thinks that they’ll lose him soon. Manny says boxing is still his passion.

Margarito says again that he didn’t know what was in his hand wrappings. Naazim Richardson, Mosley’s trainer who caught the hardened hand wrap, said there was a lot of noise around the hand wrap and that could’ve been the fake out. He felt the hardness in the hands and then the gauze fell out.

Margarito’s trainer said that Margarito was questioning him the entire time because he didn’t know what was in his hands. Margarito says that because he never got to punch with the wrap, he didn’t feel it. If he would’ve been able to hit, he would’ve felt it.

Roach and Pacquiao says of course he knew.

Michael Koncz says that the reason they picked Margarito is because it was the best money fight. Manny says they have to give him a chance to come back and redeem his mistake.

Koncz says that they agreed to the drug testing with Floyd Mayweather as long as it wasn’t seven days before the fight. Well, that’s not everything.

Manny says it’s his role to fight the bigger guy. Roach says that Pacquiao said he wanted Margarito right after the fight with Oscar De La Hoya.

Margarito lost a ton of weight against Mosley to make weight, but he says he won’t make the same mistake against Pacquiao. He’s already down to 158 weeks before.

Roach is popular in the Philippines, even in the malls as teenage girls squeal and ask to get their picture taken with him.

Roach thinks that Pacquiao’s congressional duties are causing him to lose focus and his training is off.

Margarito goes through a drill where he gets slapped on his abs with a stick for nearly three minutes long. Insane.

I think the show does a really good job of showing how conflicted Pacquiao may be with all his duties. Think Rocky during Rocky III. They also show Margarito as someone who swears to not be guilty, but is definitely someone who paid a price. I’m not sure that type of Margarito sells this fight though. If Margarito decided to play the heel, I think there’d be way more interest in Pacquiao trying to conquer a cheater and bully.

It’s one day before the big fight and the last episode of 24/7, which has been simply superb.

Underneath Eminem’s new single, Not Afraid, there’s a montage of shots of Mayweather running, Mosley watching tape, Richardson praying, and Roger Mayweather thinking.

Money says that he never wants his kids to have to work for anyone.

Mosley says people don’t believe in him and he’s not sure why they count him out. But he believes in him and he thinks he’s going to win.

The drug testing agency comes to test Mosley on Monday, right before they make their drive to Las Vegas. Mosley says that because he’s trying to cut, he doesn’t have a lot of pee. He says that it has been difficult to try and cut weight and then to have to be tested. He’d rather they just take blood.

Mayweather says that he feels good when his dad and uncle are both there. Floyd says you play football and basketball, but you don’t play boxing.

Richardson says that until you’re challenged, they won’t accept that you’re the best. Shane’s his challenge.

Richard Schaefer says that Floyd and Shane are the two best fighters in the world, a clear shot at Manny Pacquiao.

Floyd Sr. tells Shane at the press conference that he’s in trouble. Richardson says it’s a rare occasion when you get two special fighters and that’s what you have for the fight.

The music clearly adds something to this series. HBO has a list of all the songs used in the series on their website.

As a bonus, I’ve embedded the 24/7 Overtime special with Floyd Sr. and Jack Mosley talking about their sons with Jim Lampley.

Mayweather says he’s thinking about the check while Mosley is thinking about the fight. He said that Vernon Forrest, Winky Wright, and Miguel Cotto f*cked him up and he’s going to do the same. This guy.

He says that they lured Richardson into the war of words. He also said that Shane disrespected Jack Mosley, his father. Mayweather says he’s keeping his money all in the family.

Naazim Richardson uses a towel to keep Shane on his toes when he’s doing his work in the ring and on the bag. He just swings it near him and Shane has to avoid it no matter what he’s doing.

Shane says the goal is to beat Mayweather and nothing else matters.

Floyd says Mosley is good at what he does, but the difference is that he’s great at what he does.

Floyd Sr. thinks Shane’s going to be fighting jittery. They make fun of Naazim’s towel waiving technique at the heavy bag.

Floyd says that he has security because you see what happened with Arturo Gatti and Vernon Forrest. He has seven guys protecting him while Shane only has one guy who says they call him “The Knockout Artist”.

Richardson says that you’re doing a great job when you beat someone up so badly that they think you’re on steroids. He says you’re doing something right when you can’t sing and they let you sing. He of course, was talking about Manny Pacquiao.

Roger Mayweather has diabetes and gets insulin shots in his hand, arm, and stomach every day. He didn’t know about it until he read up on it and decided to get taken care of so that he can raise his kid. He says his greatest contribution in life was having his son. His young son already has the Mayweather boxing gene down.

Floyd Sr. says that because of his lung disease, he has to watch himself and stay healthy so that he doesn’t get pneumonia.

Richardson says that he’s proud of the way Mosley conducts himself and rags on Mayweather for conducting himself the way he does. Well, except when Shane got caught up with Balco.

Mosley says he won’t feed into Mayweather’s mouth because he doesn’t want to let him win the first battle. Or, you can and sell the fight. But in this case, he probably doesn’t need to sell it. It’s going to sell already thanks to Mayweather and just the high quality of the match-up.

The show opens with Mayweather telling Mosley that he’s definitely talented, but Mayweather is “god-gifted”. Naazim Richardson says that Mayweather was protected in the streets because his dad and uncle were fighters. I’m trying to remember when Floyd said he was a street fighter.

While watching an old Mayweather fight, Richardson says that they should show him hitting the pads because he’s boring. He says non-Mayweather fans think he’s a talented coward, but he disagrees with that. He thinks Mosley is going to hit Mayweather and Mayweather’s going to turn into a fire breathing dragon and Mosley will have to use lateral movement with him.

They show May’s amazingly jacked security crew working out at Golds. Let’s just say that Floyd’s not testing his own security.

Floyd says he’s a fool if he would give the sport 33 years of his life and not be the best. He would never say there’s another fighter better than him.

Mosley and De La Hoya go on George Lopez’s late night show and Lopez says that he’s more intrigued with this fight than Mayweather/Pacquaio. Let’s not go too far George.

George says Mosley is going to knockout Mayweather. Well, George is friends with Oscar, so he’s not necessarily an unbiased observer.

Roger says that he’s not guilty of hitting a female boxing student that could send him to jail for up to ten years if proven guilty. He says that there’s no way he could’ve hit her if she didn’t show any bruise on her.

Roger and Naazim get on a conference call and Roger talks steroids and Naazim talks about Floyd numbing his hands.

Mosley talks about training his son who is nineteen years old. I feel badly for that kid to have to live in his father’s shoes. Mosley talks about his dad training him and that he stopped putting boxing first. His father says he has his glory and he knows he’s a great trainer. He says he supports Shane whatever his decision may be.

Richardson says that he and Shane are like Lewis and Clark. They are pioneers. He wants to be the first person to beat Mayweather.

There’s an interesting scene where Floyd talks to his daughter about how people are going to be jealous of others because of their success. He says that as long as she loves him, he can’t lose.

Floyd says that one May 1st, there’s going to be a stick-up. Less than two weeks to go until fight time.