PACQUIAO?S LEG CRAMPS NOT A REASON FOR CONCERN
By Eddie Alinea
PhilBoxing.com
Fri, 27 Mar 2015
LOS ANGELES ? Ring icon Manny Pacquiao and his handlers dismissed as no big deal reports that the leg cramps incurred during roadwork at the mountainous Griffith Hills here are hampering his preparations or his coming May 2 welterweight unification fight against undefeated Floyd Mayweather Jr.
?Not really, there?s nothing to worry,? Pacquiao said in an interview with this writer after another tough sparring Thursday afternoon (Friday in Manila) at the Wild Card gym. "There are times really that I have to rest my body. Five weeks na tayong nag e-ensayo at siyempre napapagod din ng katawan. Hindi naman tayo bakal.?
?Like this morning, hindi ako pinatakbo because mayroong sparring at kailangan nasa ayos ang katawan ko,? the World Boxing Organization welterweight champion added. ?Pag may sparring kasi, Freddie (chief trainer Freddie Roach) and Justin (conditioning coach Justin Fortune) often times do away with the usual roadwork.?
?That?s b?.s?.t,? Roach, for his part, reacted to reports that the injury has been affecting the eight-division belt-owner?s training. ?Leg cramps are nothing. Manny just shook off his legs and it?s gone.?
As for Thursday morning?s failure to answer the call to attend the roadwork being held thrice a week at the University of California-Los Angeles track and field stadium, Roach said his pupil?s long, tiring day Wednesday was the reason.
?First, Manny didn?t have the chance to eat dinner on time because after training for three hours, he still had to be interviewed by seven television stations that lasted until past 8 in the evening,? the five-time trainer of the year honoree rued.
?Then this morning, at 3 o?clock to be exact, people in Manila woke him up to deliver a message at a press conference announcing a joint television coverage of the fight (among several television networks),? Roach bewailed, adding that organizers of the media conference could have realized that by the time the announcement, it was early dawn in L.A.
?It?s no big deal, really,? Fortune, on the other hand, said, also by way of reacting to the leg cramps reports. ?Manny has to rest. It?s still a long way to go before the fight, one month, more or less.
?It?s good that we did that, because Manny sparred for eight rounds today against two different spar mates. Then he still did the mitts with Freddie for several rounds plus several more rounds with the balls,? Fortune narrated.
?Poor Manny, he had a very long and hard day yesterday. He was at UCLA in the morning, rested a while before going to the gym, trained then interviewed on television with nobody even remembering to bring him at least a sandwich or something for a snack before the interview,? he said shaking his head.
?Then somebody told me he had to wake up at the wee hour just to make a statement in a press conference held in the Philippines,? Fortune lamented. ?Look, Manny?s been working very hard or the past four weeks or so. Could somebody please give him a break??
Pacquiao?s conditioning coach said the leg exercises the boxer of the decade has been doing thrice a week at UCLA is no easy job. It consists of, among others, climbing the 100-steps in the bleacher sidewise (left then right) then going down.
This is besides making five or six laps around the 400-meter oval, which Fortune describes as backbreaking, and only a man of Pacquiao?s strength can do.
?Even Mayweather, the man they call pound-or-pound king I tell you cannot do what Manny is doing,? Fortune disclosed. ?I can guarantee you that.?
Click here to view a list of other articles written by Eddie Alinea.
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