By Ronnie Nathanielsz
Pound-for-pound king Manny Pacquiao, who received a heroes welcome from scores of Filipino fans when he arrived at Los Angeles airport Saturday evening with trainer Freddie Roach and members of Team Pacquiao, is entering the toughest stage of his training camp.
Roach set the tone of what will happen at the Wild Card Gym for the next two weeks beginning Monday when he said “Now its time to get focused. We’re in LA.”
Roach reiterated that he had three new sparring partners for Pacquiao which would include undefeated light middleweights Julio Cezar Chavez Jr and Vanes Martirosyan who has said he would try to drop Pacquiao in sparring and earn the $1,000 bonus from Roach.
Sparring will begin on Tuesday behind closed doors as Roach has announced he would shut down the Wild Card Gym from 12 noon to 5:00 p.m. every day.
Despite Pacquiao’s sluggish performance in sparring both in Baguio City and on the final day at the Johnny Elorde Gym in Quezon City on Friday when Roach himself conceded “we did not have a good day” the trainer predicted on arrival in Los Angeles that “This fight will not go past eight rounds. It will be a clean knockout.”
Conditioning expert Alex Ariza said he would check Pacquiao’s weight after they landed and Pacquiao drove to his plush Palazzo apartment to “evaluate where we started, where we are at, where we were for the last two fights (against Miguel Cotto and Joshua Clottey) numbers and go over those.”
Roach said Pacquiao weighed 146 pounds but Ariza indicated he’d like to see Pacquiao get up to 151-152 and if he can stay right there and have great sparring I’d like to keep him there.”
Top Rank promoter Bob Arum sought to downplay concerns about Pacquiao’s condition saying “there is really no cause for alarm because Manny is a veteran and he will peak during fight week so that when he goes into the ring on November 13 in Dallas, it will be the Manny Pacquiao at the ultimate of his strength and that’s very, very good.”
Arum said trainer Freddie Roach and Pacquiao were “working on the two elements that would enable Manny to beat (Antonio) Margarito. His speed because Margarito isn’t known for speed and Manny can use that speed to his advantage and secondly the right hand.”
He explained that “when fighters get used to fighting a left handed fighter they concentrate on the left hand and most lefties the right hand is just for the jab. But Manny can really whack with that right hand and that’s gotten him through a number of fights.”
Arum recalled that the right of Pacquiao “started the demise of Ricky Hatton, it completely confused Oscar De La Hoya that Manny was hitting him from both sides, it made Joshua Clottey quit fighting after the first round so that right hand is certainly a potent weapon.”
