By Lem Satterfield
There have been plenty of rumors on the exact details of a recent Manny Pacquiao vs. Amir Khan sparring session, which took place a few weeks back in Baguio City, Philippines. Their mutual trainer, Freddie Roach, told FanHouse during a recent interview that Khan "punched the sh*t out of Manny."
Roach is currently training both boxer for their upcoming fights. Pacquiao face Antonio Margarito for the vacant WBC junior middleweight title on November 13 at Cowboys Stadium and Khan defends the WBA junior welterweight title against Marcos Maidana on December 11 at the Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas.
Khan presents a different version of the sparring tale, although he says the action was intense and very close to an actual fight. Roach directed both of them to spar very hard with each other and the end result was fireworks in the ring.
"Well, you know, the sparring was amazing. You know, people could have paid to watch us spar. When we sparred, we didn't take it easy. It was like a fight. A real fight, because Freddie Roach wanted us to spar really hard," said Khan.
"Freddie wanted us to approach it like a fight, because you don't know what to expect. And if I can go with Manny like I did, then, then I can catch anyone in the world, because Manny is quick and very durable."
Khan says the two of them were on even terms by the end of the sparring session and neither of the two boxers were hurt or suffered injury.
"There was a very technical aspect to the sparring and the fighting. A lot of people might think that it was just a war. The first time I sparred with him, that was a little bit of a war. But this time, it was more technical. We were both thinking more. There were a lot of jabs thrown," said Khan.
"We were very smart in the sparring, which was good, because it made me think and, with someone like Manny, you have to be smart and not just go in and try to knock him out because that's when you get hurt yourself. No one got hurt in the sparring. We both had a good sparring session. We finished up being very even. I think that, in the end, Freddie was very happy with it, and that Manny was very happy with the sparring as well."
Lem Satterfield is the boxing editor at AOL FanHouse and the news editor at BoxingScene.com. To read more from Lem Satterfield, go to AOL FanHouse by Clicking Here.
