JUSTIN FORTUNE: ROACH HAS THE KEY TO BEAT MAYWEATHER
By Eddie Alinea
PhilBoxing.com
Fri, 10 Apr 2015
LOS ANGELES -- To win over Floyd Mayweather Jr. in their multi-million dollar welterweight unification showdown a little less than four weeks from now, World Boxing Organization welterweight champ Manny Pacquiao must listen to chief trainer Freddie Roach now and during fight night.
This was what Pacquiao's conditioning coach Justin Fortune must have been advising the eight-division champion if the latter wants to emerge victorious in the May 2 date with his World Boxing Council/World Boxing Organization counterpart.
"Manny is unbeatable with the way he's conducting himself in the camp," the cancer survivor conditioning guru told this writer shortly before Pacquiao's aborted sparring session Thursday at the Wild Card Gym.
?It's only Freddie who knows how to fight Mayweather and win," Fortune assured. "So, Manny should listen to the letter all the instructions of his chief trainer, not only during training period but, most importantly, given at the corner."
"This doesn't mean though that Manny isn't doing his job in the camp. Definitely he does. Freddie, too, does his job and so are we in the coaching staff, Buboy (Fernandez), Haplas (Roger Fernandez), Nonoy Neri and Marvin (Somodio)," Fortune remarked.
"It's actually all a matter of listening and execution of what the instructions are," he explained.
"I'm happy to report though that for the past two months here in L.A., Manny has been all ears as far as obeying Freddie's instructions and he's been executing them well," the Australian former wrestling enthusiast said.
Explaining Pacquiao's skipping the scheduled sparring for the day, Fortune said that according to Top Rank Promotions media relations man, his pupil went into an unexpected blood and urine testing conducted by representatives from the USADA earlier in the day.
"You know Manny, he doesn't want to undergo physical activities immediately after blood extraction," Fortune reasoned out.
It was the second consecutive sparring days that the three-time fighter of the year absented himself from doing the routine. Last Tuesday, Roach gave him a day-off from his hectic training regimen.
"As you know, Manny is training like crazy in preparing himself for this very important fight of his career that Freddie thought of giving him a rest day Tuesday," he said.
"All I can assure boxing fans, especially your countrymen back home, is that Manny's in shape already. Not yet in tip-top shape but he will be within the next two weeks," Fortune said by way of giving assurance that Pacquiao has not been remiss in following his training as has been reported by some media sectors.
Click here to view a list of other articles written by Eddie Alinea.
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