PACQUIAO SKIPS TRAINING ANEW
By Eddie Alinea
PhilBoxing.com
Sat, 26 Mar 2016
LOS ANGELES, CA -- Wednesday (Thursday Manila) last week, five days after Manny Pacquiao landed here from Manila, chief trainer Freddie Roach canceled the workout scheduled that day to give his ward time to recover from jet lag brought about by the long, 11-hour plane trip.
The following day, the eight-division champion was back in the gym and punished his two sparring partners --Congolese-Canadian Ghislain Maduma and American Lydell Rhode -- that elated Roach and his assistants no end.
Today (Saturday in Manila), the 37-year-old former World Boxing Organization welterweight kingpin skipped anew his gym activities due to the grueling 12-round sparring the day before coupled with an energy-sapping roadwork at the mountainous Griffith Hills this Friday morning.
Like what happened a week before, Roach did not worry a bit dismissing the incident as normal to a hard-working guy like his pupil, who he said is expected to make it all up the following day as he often prone to do.
"Manny needs a bit of rest after a hard day's work Thursday when he engaged his mates to a no-nonsense sparring, which by far was the best since we arrived here from Manila," the 56-year-old Hall of Famer told this writer and those who would care to listen inside the Wild Card Gym.
"No, I'm not worried at all 'cause I know he'll be back tomorrow and like before, he'll kill himself in the scheduled skirmishes," Roach explained. "As we've been saying, Manny's already in peak form and can easily adjust to whatever glitch that may occur from now until we leave for Las Vegas.
Pacquiao is fighting American Timothy Bradley for the third time on April 9 at the MGM Grand in that city of vice.
Training, according to Roach, resumes Saturday (Sunday in Manila) with the scheduled toned down eight rounds of sparring.
Conditioning coach Justin Fortune agreed, saying preparation at this stage, three weeks before the actual combat, is focused on just maintaining what the camp has achieved.
"What we are avoiding at this stage of the run up to the day of the fight is acquiring an injury that might jeopardized the gains we accomplished in the camp," Fortune said.
Fred Sternburg, Top Rank media relations officer echoed the same sentiment.
"Manny's been working hard the past several weeks and Freddie was right in giving him the needed respite," Sternburg said. "We've known Manny for so long and we know he'll recover immediately with the delay in training."
Photo: Pacquiao leaves the Wild Card Gym early after the training team decided to skip gym activities Friday afternoon (Saturday in Manila).
Click here to view a list of other articles written by Eddie Alinea.
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