CONDITIONING guru Alex Ariza said Filipino boxing hero Manny Pacquiao looks better than ever after his first day at the Wild Card Gym of trainer Freddie Roach.
In an overseas telephone conversation with www.insidesports, Standard Today and Viva Sports, Ariza said Pacquiao ran for 40 minutes at Griffith Park Monday morning (Tuesday in Manila) and then went 12 rounds on the punch-mitts with Roach at the gym.
When it was all over Ariza said: “I am telling you Ronnie, I am not making it up. He is looking better than alright. This is the best I’ve ever seen him.”
He said Pacquiao woke up and weighed 150 pounds for the 145 pound catch-weight “Fire Power” showdown with World Boxing Organization welterweight champion Miguel Cotto at the MGM Grand Garden Arena on Nov. 14.
Pacquiao gets back into the sparring mode on Wednesday (Manila Time), but Roach hasn’t decided who he will spar with, although former sparring partner Raymund Beltran is back at the Wild Card Gym and could possibly be one of the sparring partners.
Asked whether they had any word on Cotto’s training camp, Ariza replied: “You know I haven’t heard anything, but I’ve got to be honest with you, I wasn’t so impressed the way he looked after being in camp 30 days before Manny. He looks a little soft to me. Couldn’t let our guy look like that, that’s for sure.”
Meantime, well-known TV boxing analyst Moy Lainez informed us that Pacquiao had committed to have former Filipino super flyweight champion Eden Sonsona (16-5, 3 KOs) and undefeated super flyweight Rodolfo Sumabong (7-0, 3 KOs) featured on the undercard of the Cotto fight.
Lainez recalled that Pacquiao, in his last meeting with his late former manager Rod Nazario, had promised to get Sonsona a fight on the “Fire Power” card.
Sumabong, a boxer of Pacquiao’s longtime friend Rex “Wakee” Salud, who had also been given attention by Roach, while Pacquiao trained at the Gerry Peñalosa gym in Mandaluyong City, Metro Manila, was also to be included on the card.
Lainez said Pacquiao instructed Michael Koncz, who attends to much of the administrative duties in Team Pacquiao to make sure the fighters obtained their US visas and will be included on the card.
Lainez said that because of Pacquiao’s commitment, Sonsona’s fight on the re-named weekly boxing show “Rod Nazario’s In This Corner” was canceled.
(This article is originally posted at manilastandardtoday.com)
****************************************************
Custom Search
(Source: YouTube.com)
No comments:
Post a Comment