By Steve Kim
As he sat down for his afternoon meal at Nat Thai's restaurant, which is located adjacent to the Wild Card Boxing Club, trainer Justin Fortune stated that he is satisfied with the first week of work put in by Manny Pacquiao as they prepare for the May 2nd showdown versus Floyd Mayweather.
"We had some jet-lag the first part of the week," said Fortune on Friday to BoxingScene.com. "He was busy doing that tour before they came over from the Philippines so that was to be expected. Now, he had a good rest yesterday and last night, so he'll be back."
With about less than two months now before the fight, Fortune says 'the Pac Man' is where he needs to be physically.
"Oh yeah, absolutely, he always comes to me around 60-percent and then we build him up and peak him and he's always done the same thing. We peak Manny on the day of the fight."
For now, there is no sparring, according to Fortune plenty of floor work is being put in. As Freddie Roach returns from Macao, things will ratchet up.
It's already been an interesting camp with reports of armed guards at Pacquiao's camp, to which Fortune responded - "Well, there's no guns from me so what the hell? This is silly stuff being put on."
Then there were rumors that Mayweather's adviser, Al Haymon, was bribing prospective sparring partners to not work with Pacquiao in preparation for this upcoming fight.
"It's childish," said Fortune with disgust. "It's f***ing schoolyard. If I'm a sparring partner I'm not going to be bribed. Freddie has all his sparring partners lined up. So I'm sure these guys are with promoters and stuff like that. Al Haymon...it's just so stupid, so schoolyardish. If that's the extent of the mind games. I mean, they need to go back to school."
Steve Kim is the news editor for BoxingScene.com.
