Manny Pacquiao's Training Winds Down, Still Looking Sharp

By Ronnie Nathanielsz

Filipino boxing icon Manny Pacquiao sparred eight rounds against welterweight Rashad Holloway (9-1, 5 KO’s) and undefeated light welterweight Marvin “Much Too Much” Cordova (20-0-1, 11 KO’s) and looked good as he wound down training in preparation for showdown against Oscar De La Hoya at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas on December 6.

Conditioning expert Alex Ariza in an overseas telephone conversation with insidesports.ph, Standard Today and Viva Sports said the sparring “went well although he started off a little slow for the first rounds (against Holloway) but got going for the last four rounds (against Cordova) so Freddie (Roach) said he was really pleased with the last four rounds.”

Ariza said Pacquiao appeared happy and showed “a lot of energy” and said he was personally pleased with how Pacquiao is doing.

Ariza indicated that Roach, two-time “Trainer of the Year” is deeply engrossed in breaking down the fight against De La Hoya. Roach has said in the past that “The Golden Boy” whom he trained for the “World Awaits” megabuck fight against Floyd Mayweather stopped using the stinging left jab after six rounds and therein lies the secret of how to beat him.

While there have been reports that De La Hoya was having rotor cuff problems which may be aggravated by his dropping down to the stipulated weight of 147 pounds, it may well be the lateral movements that will cause him problems.

A study of the Mayweather fight tape shows that in the early stages of the fight Mayweather stood in front of De La Hoya but when he started using lateral movements and firing shots from different angles, De La Hoya stopped using his jab.

Roach’s game-plan may well be the same except that instead of trying to stay out of range of De La Hoya’s jab and left hook in the early rounds Pacquiao is likely to launch one vicious attack after another from different angles to take the sting out of De La Hoya.

In the meantime there appears to be some indecision on whether or not the $50,000 sanction fee which was negotiated between Pacquiao’s lawyer Franklin “Jeng” Gacal and WBC president Don Jose Sulaiman would be paid in the light of the announcement that the WBC had approved an interim title fight between Edwin Valero and Antonio Pitalua.

Top Rank promoter Bob Arum, Roach and Pacquiao himself have indicated he would fight at 140 pounds and not return to 135 to defend his WBC crown with talk that since he’s giving up the title and the De La Hoya fight is not a WBC event there was no need to pay the reduced sanction fee of $50,000.