PACQUIAO WINDS DOWN PH LEG OF TRAINING
By Eddie Alinea
PhilBoxing.com
Sat, 12 Mar 2016
The Philippines' boxing pride Manny Pacquiao is set to end the first stage of his training program today in hometown General Santos City before taking a private plane to Manila and fly straight to Los Angeles City where he resumes training for his upcoming fight with Timothy Bradley.
Originally scheduled March 15, Pacquiao's departure was moved three days ahead on the advice of chief trainer Freddie Roach in order not to disrupt his preparedness program due to a few days of inactivity.
A sparring session has, in fact, been set at 2 p.m. today before his training team, which also includes Roach assistants Buboy Fernandez, Roger Fernandez and Nonoy Neri, takes a private plane that will bring them direct to the Ninoy Aquino International Airport.
Pacquiao and his team is taking a 10 p.m. Philippine Air Lines flight to Los Angeles for the second leg of his three-stop preparations. The team arrives in L.A. the same day that will give the eight-division champion a day of rest Sunday before plunging back into action Monday.
After Thursday's sparring with Canadian-based Congolese Ghislain Maduma and American Lydell Rhodes, Pacquiao has logged a total 42 ronds of sparring which, according to the 56-year-old Roach made his pupil ready for a together grind awaiting him at the Wild Card Gym at the heart of Hollywood.
Two more dancing partners -- up-and-coming Jose Ramirez and Frankie Gomez -- will be joining Maduma and Rhodes in L.A., according to the Hall of Fame boxing maestro.
Unlike in the first week under Roach at Pacman's version of the Wild Card Gym, in GenSan, Pacquiao showed vast improvement in both the sparring and with the mitts this week that had seen Roach grinning ear-to-ear after each of training sessions.
"Manny's back to his usual self in training," Roach told this writer after Thursday's session where Pacquiao also did an extended 10 round on the mitts. "No more distractions in his physical and mental senses," he added.
"He knows that if he's really up to his plan to retire after this fight and retire with a bang, he should win convincingly. To do that, he should train hard, " he said.
Roach was particularly happy that Pacquiao has stopped playing basketball, which he said, robbed him of his training time the first two week since he arrived mid-February.
"That's our deal and I'm glad he's fulfilling what he promised me," Roach said.
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