HOLLYWOOD–When in deep training, Manny Pacquiao is like an onrushing train. Fluid in motion yet difficult to halt.
After a back-breaking, two-hour workout and eight rounds of sparring and shadow-boxing, there was only one thing Pacquiao wanted to do at trainer Freddie Roach’s Wild Card gym: Work out even more.
While other trainers push their wards to go the extra mile in training, Roach uses his persuasive powers just to rein in Pacquiao at this point of preparations for the March 15 rematch against Juan Manuel Marquez in Las Vegas.
“He wanted to do more (training), but I told him to cut back,” said Roach.
“The fight is getting closer and closer. Tomorrow (Friday) we will do 10 rounds with the mitts and we’ll break it down as we try to slow everything down and just maintain (that pace).”
After watching Pacquiao execute their “secret weapon” twice against Mexican sparmates Ramon Montano and Juanito Garcia, respectively, Roach declared: “He is in good shape and ready to go.”
According to a Team Pacquiao insider, the three-punch combination, a Roach concoction, will send Marquez down during the megabuck fight for the WBC and Ring Magazine super featherweight crowns.
“We’re getting close (to perfecting the combination),” said Roach.
Despite holding back on his punches and movements, Pacquiao still mastered Montano, who will battle WBC lightweight titlist David Diaz in the undercard of the “Unfinished Business,” and Garcia, an unbeaten super featherweight prospect.
Pacquiao knocked Marquez down thrice in the first round of their first meeting but the Mexican managed to get up and control the later rounds to forge a draw.
But observers believe that Marquez will not be able to get up from a Pacquiao salvo this time.
“Come fight time, Pacquiao would be hitting Marquez with crippling blows,” said 71-year-old United States-based trainer Ben Delgado, who was with Pacquiao when the ring hero first set foot in America in 2001, in Filipino. “And he won’t be able to rise again.”
