Pacquiao starts Baguio training April 16
By Eddie Alinea
PhilBoxing.com
Tue, 10 Apr 2012
World Boxing Organization welterweight champion Manny Pacquiao has extended his stay in General Santos City for one more week prior to pitching camp in Baguio City on Sunday for his preparation for his coming fight with junior welterweight belt-owner Timothy Bradley.
Chief trainer Freddie Roach yesterday clarified the 33-year-old eight-division titleholder will not be inactive in the interim as he promised to continue doing the roadwork he started in Sta. Rosa in Laguna two weeks ago and continued in General Santos during the Holy Week.
?We talked on the phone last Saturday and he told me he is definitely be in Baguio on Sunday (April 15) to start serious training the following day (Monday),? Roach told this writer in a telephone interview.
?He told me he?s been running daily for the past two weeks in his efforts to remove excess baggage in his body and he will continue doing so in General Santos this week,? Roach, who is now at the Pines City supervising the build up program of another ward ? Englishman Amir Khan ? said.
?I said to him to just go on doing what he will be comfortable with. It?s still early anyway and we have plenty of time to prepare. The schedule is to start really on April 16 so we?re on time,? the 52-year-old Hall of Famer assured.
?But when we start, I also told him it will be hard work ? hard work ? and hard work,? he stressed. ?We?ve learned our lesson in our last fight and we will not be that too complacent this time around.?
Roach was referring to the Filipino icon?s unimpressive majority decision victory over Mexican legend Juan Manuel Marquez in Chapter III of their trilogy held last May in Las Vegas.
Pacquiao is putting his 140-pound title on the block against American undefeated junior-welterweight titlist Timothy Bradley on June 9 at the MGM Grand in the gambling city of Las Vegas.
Roach and Khan, the former World Boxing Association and International Boxing Federation junior-welterweight kingpin, motored to the country?s summer capital last Sunday along with conditioning coach Alex Ariza and Khan?s uncle-manager Taz Khan.
Besides enjoying the rare opportunity of spending longer time with his family ? wife Jinkee and children Jimwell, Michael, Princess and Queenie -- Pacquiao also keeps himself busy preaching and attending prayer meetings a new calling tasked him by the church hierarchy as Bible Ambassador.
Roach, in a separate interview held last Maundy Thursday, expressed wary about Bradley?s toughness, cleverness and his penchant for using his elbows and heads, adding though that they will be preparing for that.
? Yes, we?ll be ready for him. For whatever he?s capable of doing and that?s what we?ll be concentrating on,? he vowed. ?I want Manny to win by a knockout and that?s what we will be preparing for. How to win by KO.?
Roach disclosed that he has a trio of young sparring partners resembling Bradley?s style and he will be bringing one of them, Russian Rusian Provodnikov, to Baguio as Pacquiao?s initial mates with the two others joining the team in Los Angeles.
Provodnikov, who owns an impressive 21-0 record with 14 knockouts, is scheduled to arrive in Manila April 24 from his hometown in Beryozovo, Siberia.
Asked if Pacquiao?s turning to be a preacher might lessen his killer?s instinct, Roach retorted: ?I don?t think so. Manny is a pro and he knows how to deal with his being a preacher and a boxer. Besides, he?s with God, so what?s there to fear for.?
The trainer said he doesn?t see any problem getting Pacquiao into shape notwithstanding the four months of inactivity since his last fight.
?Manny I?m sure, will be hungry to train, so his long inactivity won?t pose as a problem,? he said, adding he also sees very minor distractions unlike those in the previous training camp. ?That four-month outside of the ring is a blessing in disguise because he had a good rest.?
?Well, now that he is a self-proclaimed change man, I see no more of the distractions that mark our previous preparations,? he said with a smile in his face. ?Except basketball, of course, because outside of boxing, that?s his world.?
Roach also said that there will be no major changes in the training regimen as he will not be deviating from the ?winning formula? that spelled success before. ?It ain?t broken, so why fix it.?
Click here to view a list of other articles written by Eddie Alinea.
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