PACQUIAO STARTS SPARRING

BAGUIO CITY – Manny Pacquiao sometimes has the tendency to be lax in his training, but when he plunges seriously into it, he sort of kills himself.

This was again proven on his first day of sparring when the world welterweight champion missed his routine roadwork as he slept twice in the morning before facing 10th ranked welterweight Shawn Porter and lightweight David Rodela in the afternoon in two rounds skirmish each.

After the day’s session though that included six round of working with the mitts, extra rounds with the big bag, double end ball, speed ball and conditioning exercises, chief trainer was all praises with the way the day went.

“It’s a great day. He’s not 100 percent okay yet, especially in his timing,” Roach said in what he saw in a four and-a-half hour sweat session. “He’s a little bit cautious with his moves, but that’s understandable. I can see him improving a lot before we leave for Los Angeles on Saturday.”

Their plan, according to the 51-year-old trainer, is to increase the frequency of sparring from four rounds yesterday and today with Porter and Rodela having two rounds each, to five Thursday and possibly six and seven Friday and Saturday.

“That’s what he usually does following a miss in a training regimen. He did not run this morning, but look how he almost killed himself this afternoon, “ Ariza, for his part, observed.

“Actually, what he did today was what he requested. He did not need the big bag, but he wanted that. And so were the double end and the speed ball. That only meant one thing, he’s serious in whatever he wants to do in training,” Ariza added.

“Well, kailangan talaga bigay-todo sa ensayo, marami tayong dapat ma-recover matapos ang mahabang pahinga mula noong laban ko okay (Antonio) Margarito. Pero ayos lang naman,” Pacquiao, on the other hand, said.

“Excited na ako sa laban at ngayon pa lang ay gusto ko nasa kondisyon na. Pero siymepre malayo pa naman. Tama si Freddie nangangapa pa ako sa timing ng suntok. Di ko maibigay agad kahit gusto ko. Ma-adjust naman agad yun,” he said.

Despite what he lacked, Porter, a former candidate to the U.S Olympic team, and Rodela along with a throng that filled the Cooyeessan Hotel Shape Up Gym despite earlier announcement that the session was closed door were impressed with Pacquiao’s performance in his first day of tasting a mocked fights.

“He’s still a bit rusty. We both are, but he still possesses the power and speed like before,” Porter one of the men who helped Pacquiao prepare in his fight against Miguel Cotto, assessed.

“I challenged him to toe-to-toe and he accepted the dare. He amazed me as usual, he said.

“Yeah, same with me. I wanted to mix it up with him and he obliged,” Rodela said.

Source: PhilBoxing.com