IN HIS first workout that lasted one-and-a-half hours at the Wild Card Boxing Club yesterday, Manny Pacquiao did everything his trainer asked him to do. Except spar, which is set for another day, Pacquiao had the right moves, leaving Freddie Roach smiling for the rest of the day.
“I did the (punch) mitts for six rounds, hit the heavy bag, speed ball and the double-end ball, shadow-boxed,” Pacquiao said when contacted at his two-bedroom apartment unit at The Palazzo where he rested after the workout.
“No sparring yet but very soon we will start sparring,” added Pacquiao, who clashes with Juan Manuel Marquez of Mexico in a rematch on March 15 in Las Vegas.
Roach said he was a bit surprised that Pacquiao?s first training session “looked great” as he was still fresh from a long-haul flight from Manila.
“I guess he did some workout before coming over here,” said Roach, who, for the next eight weeks has been tasked to turn the Filipino southpaw into a lean and mean punching machine.
Sparring will happen two weeks from now and Roach is bringing over Roger ?Speedy? Gonzalez and undefeated superlightweight Daniel Cervantes to lend a hand in what Roach has labeled as the most difficult fight yet for Pacquiao.
To prepare himself for his maiden appearance at Wild Card for 2008, Pacquiao did some roadwork in the morning and by the time he showed up at the well-known sweat shop along Vine Street in Hollywood, he was all pumped up to show that he remains motivated for Marquez.
“You still cannot take Marquez lightly,” said Pacquiao, who could not put away the Mexican even though he had him down thrice in the first round of their May 2004 encounter at the MGM Grand, just one block away from the 12,000-seat Events Center inside Mandalay Bay, where the two will square off in two month?s time.
Tickets are priced at 0, $ 400, $ 300, $ 200 and $ 100, and Top Rank big boss Bob Arum expects a sellout and a huge jump in pay-per-view sales owing to the enormous response to the matchup.
Dubbed “Unfinished Business,” the Pacquiao-Marquez rematch has a retail price of .95 per pay-per-view subscription.
“Eighty-five percent of the tickets have been sold,” said Arum, who is staging the rematch in partnership with Oscar De La Hoya?s Golden Boy Promotions.
Marquez?s World Boxing Council (WBC) superfeatherweight crown will be on the line in a duel that has all the markings of a classic.
