Pacquiao's camp tells champion: Please be serious

MANILA, Philippines — Manny Pacquiao has sensed the urgency of giving his 100 percent in the final two weeks of his training in the Philippines, the fighter’s Canadian adviser said on Wednesday.

“We had a heart-to-heart talk yesterday and he told me that he will no longer take trips down to Manila or elsewhere during weekends as he had done the last two weeks,” Koncz told The Bulletin.

After his first week of training in Baguio, Pacquiao motored down to Manila to fulfill a commitment that he made to the Armed Forces of the Philippines. Just over the weekend, Pacquiao did it again, leaving his training camp and chief trainer Freddie Roach so he could take part in a fun run.

“No more trips down the mountains,” said Koncz, who admitted that he was concerned with the weekly travels from Baguio to Manila that lasted a minimum of five hours.

“You don’t have to keep your fingers crossed,” said Koncz, when told if the promise was indeed genuine and straight from the heart.

Exactly a month before he clashes with Antonio Margarito in Dallas on Nov. 13, Pacquiao has only gotten to spar five times with Michael Medina and Glen Tapia and since kicking off sparring, the 31-year-old pound-for-pound king has logged about 20-plus rounds.

Pacquiao will train in Baguio until Oct. 22 and will have his last workout on local soil the following day, just before he takes a Philippine Airlines flight to Los Angeles that night with his entire team.

The final two weeks of training under Roach at the more familiar confines of the Wild Card Boxing Club in Hollywood would be crucial since that would be the time when Pacquiao would spar as much as 12 hard rounds in one day.

Meanwhile, Top Rank chief Bob Arum is arriving this weekend from Las Vegas in time for a media day in Baguio on Monday.

“I am so excited to get there and see Manny, the team and the Filipino boxing fans,” said Arum, who will be joined by his stepdaughter Dena DuBoef, and possibly Mexican promoter Fernando Beltran.


Source: http://www.mb.com.ph

Pacquiao not in best shape, says trainer

MANILA, Philippines - Coach Freddie Roach said Manny Pacquiao is far from his best.

But if it was true, it didn’t show yesterday when the 31-year-old Filipino icon sparred five rounds with Mexican Glen Tapia at the Shape Up Gym in Baguio City.

“He almost went down,” said Team Pacquiao’s Nonoy Neri of the Mexican sparring partner who, according to Roach, may be just as good as Antonio Margarito.

Roach described Tapia as “cocky” and that he did “very, very good” when he sparred four rounds with Pacquiao last Thursday, the first day of sparring for the awaited Nov. 13 showdown.

The other sparring partner, Michael Medina, also did four rounds with Pacquiao last Saturday, and took some solid shots from the pound-for-pound champion that he looked ready to go as well.

A couple more sparring partners are coming in with reigning WBA super-welterweight champ Amir Khan probably on the way to Manila as of presstime, and Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. on standby.

Pacquiao has always done so well in sparring, even when Roach threw taller, bigger partners at him. He had a couple of boxers bloodied in his previous camps, and yesterday he was all over Tapia.

Still, Roach said Pacquiao is far from tip-top shape.

“The direction I want him to move is a little better. The stuff we were doing yesterday came through today. He’s not 100 percent; we still have a long way to go,” Ted Lerner of Ring Magazine quoted Roach as saying.

“We’re just beginning to get the game plan down and get the timing and so forth. He did what I wanted him to do a couple of times. It’s a work in progress,” added Lerner, embedded in the Pacquiao camp.

Roach said if Pacquiao fought today, chances are he’d lose, but that won’t really happen in November.

“If that Manny Pacquiao
went into a fight, we’d probably lose. But that’s why we have an eight-week training camp, so we can improve. You can’t expect too much out of a guy who hasn’t been in the ring since last March,” Lerner wrote.

Roach said Pacquiao was at 50 to 60 percent of himself when they arrived in Baguio more than a week ago, and said the Pinoy icon should be close to 90 percent before they fly to Los Angeles later this month.

Roach said Team Pacquiao should be in LA on Oct. 23, a Saturday, so Pacquiao could rest the whole of Sunday before plunging back into training the following day.


Source: http://www.philstar.com