The upcoming national elections in the Philippines could take its toll on the training schedule of Filipino boxing star Manny Pacquiao as he embarks on two full months of training for his April 9 fight against Timothy Bradley.
Boxing Hall of Fame trainer Freddie Roach usually requires his fighters including Pacquiao to train at least two months before the scheduled fight. During the training camp for most of Pacquiao’s previous fights, Roach allowed Pacquiao to train in the Philippines under Assistant trainer Buboy Fernandez together with the assigned conditioning coach. For his scheduled April 9 fight, Pacquiao needs to start training on February 9 in order to satisfy the usual eight weeks of training which includes multiple sparring sessions. Under normal conditions, Roach would likely allow Pacquiao to train in the Philippines up to four weeks. However, he would be training under abnormal situation because his training period would coincide with the start of the election campaign schedule of candidates for national election. Pacquaio is running for senator which is a national position. Under Philippine law, the campaign period for national candidates is set for February 9 to May 7 2016, which is almost exactly the same as his eight week training schedule. While Roach has yet to decide on Pacquiao’s training schedule for the Bradley fight, Pacquiao’s adviser Michael Koncz has already voiced his opposition to Pacquiao’s training in the Philippines. “I will urge him not to train here (in the Philippines),? Koncz told Nick Giongco of mb.com.ph. Obviously Koncz realized that Pacquiao won’t be able to concentrate on his training as there would be too many distractions once the election campaign starts on February 7. Pacquiao would be in a dilemma because he needs to campaign in order to solidify his winning margin in the last two pre-election surveys conducted by Pulse Asia which showed that he is included in the Magic 12 of winning senatorial candidates. Read more. Pacquiao has yet to announce his campaign plan in relation to his training schedule which he would likely do when embarks on a media tour with Bradley to promote their April 9 fight.
