IT’S back on the road and in the gym for Filipino boxing icon Manny Pacquiao as he opens training camp in Los Angeles for his August 21 fight with unified world bantamweight champion Errol Spence Jr.
Pacquiao arrived in LA on Monday after his flight was delayed for a day but he immediately buckled down to business with his usual high-intensity jogging and workout with the mitts at Freddie Roach’s Wild Card Gym where his monumental career was polished.
Although it was not the typical cat-quick Pacquiao on Monday, Fred Sternberg, Pacquiao’s long-time American publicist—told BusinessMirror that the fighting Senator was impressive on the first day of his six-week training camp.
“The senator ran all around this morning and he looked very energetic in the gym,” Sternberg said. “He had nine rounds with Freddie [Roach] at the mitts.”
Sternberg said signs that the sitting senator is in town are audible from outside the world-renowned gym.
“You can hear his punches outside the gym, that’s how loud they were,” Sternberg said. “Freddie just thought he’s very strong for this stage of training camp, very sharp, and didn’t miss anything.”
Pacquiao will be fighting his toughest challenge as a 42-year-old when he faces the undefeated International Boxing Federation and World Boxing Council welterweight champion Spence, 31, at the T Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada.
“Spence is very good, he is young and he has stamina, he is very smart,” Sternberg said. “So Manny is going to do everything he can to maximize everything and he cannot make a mistake.” Sternberg said a victory by Pacquiao will earn him the Fighter of the Year title.
“I think he can do it [upset Spence], but it’s going to be hard,” he said. But Pacquiao, he added, would definitely improve in the next six weeks.
“He has a six-pack abs already, he has a game plan and they are working on strategy,” he said. “He always comes prepared.”
Besides Roach, Pacquiao’s chief trainer Buboy Fernandez, assistant trainers Jon Peñalosa and Nonoy Neri as well as strength and conditioning coach Justin Fortune are managing Pacquiao’s training.
BusinessMirror, meanwhile, learned that Pacquiao has yet to be inoculated with the anti-Covid-19 vaccine and has hiked his close-in security to prevent getting infected.
Pacquiao, BusinessMirror also learned, fears of possible side effects if he gets the vaccine before the fight.
Image courtesy of Jhay Oh Otamias