Pacquiao ready for Baguio training camp

DESPITE not seeing the country's best festival, the Panagbenga 2011, Manny Pacquiao will push through with his plans to set up a training camp in the Summer Capital for his build-up against Sugar Shane Mosley.

This early, the eight weight class pound-for-pound champion and congressman of Sarangani has started training for his May 7 bout for the WBO welterweight title at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, Nevada.

Pacquiao, including his entourage, Freddie Roach and conditioning guru, Alex Ariza, are expected to arrive in the city March 7 where they will hold camp for at least four weeks before flying back to Los Angeles for the last phase of his training.

Also arriving is famed promoter Bob Arum who was earlier reported to arrive in Baguio on March 21. Arum also invited several American sports journalists to take a closer look at Pacquiao's build-up.

Pacquiao was earlier invited by Congressman Bernardo Vergara to witness the grand street dancing and float parade of the annual flower festival celebration but the boxer-solon opted to start training instead.

"We tried to invite him because he is already one of us considering he's trained in Baguio for two times already," Vergara said.

The eight division champion and Sugar Shane Mosley will be holding their training in high altitude camps as earlier reported.

Mosley is kicking off his own build-up at around the same time as Pacquiao in Big Bear, California, a resort town in the San Bernardino Mountains of Southern California, 141 kilometers from downtown Los Angeles.

Baguio City has an elevation of 5,100 feet above sea level while Big Bear is at 7,000 feet but certain areas in the mountain range can reach up to 9,000 feet above sea level.

Pacquiao will be facing Mosley in Las Vegas, Nevada to defend his World Boxing Organization (WBO) welterweight title.

Roach, a four-time boxing trainer of the year, earlier suggested for Pacquiao to lessen the number of training weeks from eight to six if the pound-for-pound king would go straight to Los Angeles before the fight.

But Roach earlier said their recent training camp for his fight against Antonio Margarito last November here had been the worst, owing to the many distractions Pacquiao had.

Despite the distractions, Roach still prefers Baguio to Metro Manila or Cebu because of the city's cool climate which is ideal for road work. (Roderick Osis)

Source: sunstar.com.ph