By Ronnie Nathanielsz
Filipino boxing icon Manny Pacquiao decided to skip his regular afternoon workout at the Wild Card Gym on Wednesday in Los Angeles after trainer Freddie Roach and Filipino assistant Buboy Fernandez said he had peaked a little earlier than expected and they didn’t want him to overtrain.
But that didn’t stop Pacquiao from doing his usual morning run at Griffith Park where he chose to run up the trail with an almost non-stop incline which, according to running experts, really helps a power puncher like Pacquiao.
ABS-CBN’s TJ Manotoc reported that it took Pacquiao about 30 minutes to reach the top after leaving a few Team Pacquiao members biting the dust at the halfway mark. Once he reached the top Pacquiao did some shadow boxing and exercises to strengthen his abdominal muscles since his body is expected to be the target of “The Hitman” Hatton’s solid punches.
The original plan was for Pacquiao to return to his Palazzo apartment, get some sleep and then report to the Wild Card Gym at 1:00 p.m. But Manotoc reported that Pacquiao "got "a little more tired than expected” when he tossed the ceremonial pitch at the San Francisco Giants – San Diego Padres game where he was a big hit with the fans and the media, drawing an additional 11,000 fans and raising some $50,000 for charity at the Filipino Heritage Night..
Freddie Roach and assistant trainer Buboy Fernandez decided that Pacquiao should skip the afternoon workout since they are already pleased with his condition. In fact Manotoc quoted Fernandez as saying “we were all surprised last week that after 12 rounds of sparring he still wanted to train heavily. I knew then he had hit his peak already, so now we have to be careful not to overdo it.”
Roach himself said deciding to give Pacquiao the day-off was not a tough choice since he has clearly hit his peak and they are now very cautious in making sure he doesn’t over-train.
Roach told the ABS-CBN reporter “we hit it a little earlier than planned, so we cut back on his sparring a little bit.” Roach said they will go six rounds on Thursday because “I don’t want him to over do it and over train. I felt today was a good day to give him a day off. Its part of the process.”
A basketball fan, Pacquiao’s favorite team is last year’s NBA champions, the Boston Celtics who showed up to watch him destroy WBC lightweight champion David Diaz last year. Enthralled by the on-going NBA playoffs, Pacquiao was amazed at the end-game heroics of Ray Allen on a Celtics team that lost its first game and was missing the redoubtable Kevin Garnett.
Pacquiao asked Manotoc “did you see that winning shot? With only a few seconds left he just jumped up and took it with no fear. They got the lead and that was it."
