by Ronnie Nathanielsz
Manny Pacquiao has begun to push himself in his bid to get into better shape than he was for the Miguel Cotto welterweight title fight in which he dominated the Mexican to score a twelfth round TKO last November.
Conditioning expert Alex Ariza who earlier underlined the urgency of having the pound-for-pound king get into the best shape of his life told the Inquirer that Pacquiao who started his demanding strength and conditioning regimen, had said he would allow Ariza “to do whatever I want this week.” The conditioning guru said that he “added another protein shake to his regimen at the beginning of the day now.”
Ariza who was one of a handful of close-in Team Pacquiao members allowed inside the gym by trainer Freddie Roach, said Pacquiao sparred a total of five rounds, three with undefeated Glen Tapia (7-0, 5 KO’s) and two with Michael Medina (24-2-2, 19 KO’s) . He said “I thought he (Pacquiao) looked really good. His timing is almost there but he’s working on some things so I thought he did very well.”
Celebrated trainer Freddie Roach conceded that after two weeks in Baguio City Pacquiao is still not in his best shape but told Ring Magazine’s Ted Lernber “he’s not 100 percent. We still have a long way to go.” Roach agreed with Ariza that Pacquiao’s timing in his sparring Tuesday was a little better. Roach was quoted as saying “we’e just beginning to get the game plan down and get the timing and so forth. He did what I wanted him to do a couple of times. It’s a work in progress.”
Ariza who was eager to get Pacquiao to begin the hard grind in terms of his strength and conditioning exercises said he “looked really strong, good form. Its very hard in the beginning but he knows the drill and tomorrow (Wednesday) we’ll go to the track and start doing some sprinting and opening up his lungs. Again, conditioning is going to be a big factor in this fight so we want to start with that.”
Ariza revealed that Pacquiao’s weight “is slowly starting to come up again but I’d rather not say right now” what he weighs but “give me two weeks and I’ll tell you.”
He said that with Pacquiao pushing himself to get into the best shape of his career, “in two weeks I can have him taking off his shirt. I know, when Manny starts to feel confident about his body he takes his shirt off.”
Ariza exuded confidence saying “we are going to get him on track here, and I am very happy.”
He also revealed that WBA light welterweight champion Amir Khan of Britain “will be here tomorrow (Wednesday) but he will not spar with Pacquiao.”
Ariza said “we thought it may be a good idea if we have two-and-a-half weeks strength and conditioning, focusing on getting Amir in tip-top condition. I think this is going to be my best work. He is not here to spar. He is here to get big and strong” which is also expected to help push Pacquiao even more.
