PACQUIAO, ROACH AND TRAINING TEAM DEPART FOR L.A.
By Eddie Alinea
PhilBoxing.com
Sun, 23 Oct 2016
After six weeks of huffing and puffing on the road, sparring and hitting the mitts in the gym and, in between, attending senate hearings and sessions, Filipino boxing sensation Manny Pacquiao emerged outside the Elorde sweat shop for the last time yesterday looking ready and fit to recapture the World Boxing Organization crown from its present owner Jessie Vargas.
Pacquiao and Vargas mix it up exactly two weeks from today on November 5 (November 6 in Manila) at the Thomas & Mack Center inside the University of Nevada-Las Vegas campus in that American gambling city with the ?Fighter of the Decade? aiming to win back the 147-pound plum he held twice before.
Pacquiao and his team, headed by Hall of Fame chief trainer Freddie Roach were to depart last night for Los Angeles where he will be applying the finishing touches of his build up program at the famous Wild Card Gym starting Monday before they motor to Las Vegas for the final week of preparations.
?Appyling the finishing touches, yeah, that?s exactly what we?re gonna do the next one week,? Roach told this writer Thursday night as he came out of the gym where no one, except only the inner circle of the Pacman?s retinue were admitted.
Even members of media who have been covering Pacquiao?s training since the opening of the camp late August were barred from entering the gym named after another ring hero Gabriel ?Flash? Elorde.
?Training actually ends Saturday (yesterday), but we still need to close the camp next week and the following seven days,? Roach said as if to indicate that this early, his pupil of 15 years is already top fighting form.
?We?re ready to fight,? the seven-time ?Trainer of the Year? assured. ?We did everything we need to do from physical conditioning to actual fighting and we in the training team believe that we?ve covered all bases.?
?Manny will still spar three more times next week. Punch the mitts visit the heavy bags, double end ball and speed ball, but in a very light load, ? he said. ?Just letting go of the sweat. Nothing else.?
That, according to Roach, formally brings down the curtain to what he termed ?one of the most successful training camps' since he started handling Pacquiao win the world flyweight diadem in 2001 at the expense of Lehlohonolo Ledwaba via a TKO victory in six rounds.
On the week of the fight, Pacquiao will only do very light physical activities like walking and leisure running inside the UNLV oval.
?He can play chess but not to the extent of exhausting his mental energy,? Roach said.
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