PACQUIAO SPARRING PARTNER PREDICTS PACQUIAO KNOCKS OUT BRADLEY IN 6-9 ROUNDS
By Eddie Alinea
PhilBoxing.com
Fri, 18 Mar 2016
LOS ANGELES, CA -- After a day's rest, Manny Pacquiao showed up at the Wild Card Gym Thursday stronger, faster and sharper during an 8-round sparring session at the Freddie Roach-owned boxing gym along Vine Street here.
"It was the most intense session since the sparring started three weeks ago in General Santos City, the Montreal-based Congolese Ghislain Maduma attested after his four-round tour. "The instructions (of Roach) was to make him work, but instead he made us work."
"Manny was in a fighting mood this afternoon and what I learned from him is when he's in fighting mood, he's unbeatable," Maduma assessed.
"He was the one pushing me instead of I pushing him. "He's very strong," American mate Lydell Rhodes, for his part said." I have been sparring with Manny since two years ago and I never saw him stronger than now."
"Manny was very, very good this afternoon, I tell you," the 31-year-old Maduma, who fights and looks like Timothy Bradley, the guy Pacquiao is fighting for the third time on April 9 at the MGM Grand Arena in Las Vegas, pointed out.
"He was too quick and kept on chasing and chasing me. He's 37 year-old but he looks like 25 years-old," he added. "He never gets tired. I wonder where he gets his energy."
"Not only that, Manny can take a lot of pain and punishment," Maduma said. "And he can counter as fast, too, very precise that you won't see his shots coming. Reason why he's done a lot of success."
Rhodes, a Joe Frazier look-alike who also helped the eight-division champion prepare in his second fight with Bradley, thinks Pacquiao is as intelligent as before.
He was forcing me to make mistakes and when I did, he capitalized on them," he remarked. "He'll make you pay for every mistake you make. That's how a thinking fighter should be and Manny is that guy."
One factor, Maduma said, he doesn't see in Bradley, who he added is a very basic fighter.
"Tim is very good, no doubt about it., but Manny is great," Maduma said.
Both Rhodes and Maduma believed Pacquiao will still get better as days come by. And when the three-time "Fighter of the Year" gets better, there's no way Bradley can win. "I still maintain my earlier prediction made when I arrived here, Manny will stop Bradley within six to nine rounds," Maduma noted.
Last Wednesday, Roach gave Pacquiao a rest due to fatigue caused by jet-lag after doing his roadwork at the hilly Griffith Park.
Photo: Pacquiao sparring partners Rhodes and Maduma are seen in the background during Pacquiao's workout at the Griffith Park in Los Angeles. Photo by Wendell Rupert Alinea.
Click here to view a list of other articles written by Eddie Alinea.
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