While eight division world champion Manny Pacquiao began training for his fight with Floyd Mayweather Jr. days before Money announced their mega-fight on February 21, it was only on March 2 that the Filipino boxing icon began serious preparations to what he calls as the fight of his life.
Upon arriving from the Philippines, Pacquiao began pounding the streets and the Wild Card gym of Los Angeles, buckling down to serious business for obviously the biggest bout of his boxing career, notes Yahoo! News from an AFP report.
The 36-year-old Pacquiao said that he is preparing hard for the fight with Mayweather to be able to give boxing fans the kind of entertainment they want. He also considered his fight with Money as the real fight of his life.
While a number of boxing aficionados have given Floyd Jr. the edge on their scheduled May 2 fight at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, Pacquiao is still regarded as the power puncher between the two and can really turn things around anytime during the fight.
Freddie Roach, the world-class trainer and coach of Pacquiao, said that he would have also agreed to the opinion of others that Mayweather has the edge on the fight if the bout happened five years ago. But now that Floyd Jr. is already 38 years old, Roach said that the pound-for-pound king is already in the twilight of his boxing career and may be past his prime.
Getting down to work
Pacquiao ran for 3.2 kilometers on the morning of March 2 and shadow-boxed for two rounds that was followed by abdominal workouts.
He had breakfast of steamed rice, scrambled egg, fish and chicken broth and then napped until noon. He then had lunch before going to the Wild Card gym for his training sessions with Roach.
Roach has made Pacquiao’s sessions at the Wild Card gym off limits to the press obviously to keep secret whatever their ring strategies for Mayweather are.
But Roach is yet to arrive since he is currently in Macau training Chinese fighter Zou Shiming who is vying for a world title on March 7. The world-class trainer and coach of Pacquiao will most likely be in the Wild Card gym by March 8 and he and the Filipino boxing icon can start their sessions together thereafter.
Even without Roach just yet, Pacquiao is continuing his serious preparations as he is also being overseen by conditioning coach Justin Fortune and assistant trainers Buboy Fernandez and Flash Fernandez. The Pacman’s younger brother Bobby is also helping out in his training.
It is important for Pacquiao to do his serious training in the US since he has too many distractions if he is in the Philippines. Aside from being a representative in the Philippine Congress representing his southern province of Saranggani, Pacquiao is also a playing-coach for one of the basketball teams of the Philippine Basketball Association.