To accommodate yet another publicity move by Top Rank Promotions, Manny Pacquiao has decided to adjust his training schedule in Los Angeles today.
Instead of sparring in the afternoon, the Pinoy superstar said he plans to trade punches with his ring partners in the morning at the Wild Card Gym in Hollywood.
Then by noon, Pacquiao will have to be at the Little Philippines Lake Street Park for his last public workout exactly two weeks before he faces David Diaz.
Bill Caplan of Top Rank said a full-size ring will be set up in the park so Pacquiao could work out with his trainer Freddie Roach before the fans who will watch for free.
To promote the coming fight, Pacquiao has been to Chicago once, then to Berkeley in California and San Diego. A couple more public apperances are on tap before the day of the fight.
But Pacquiao cannot hold his sparring in public view so he had planned to spar in the morning, of course behind closed doors. He might do 12 rounds of sparring.
Pacquiao, according to his LA-based wingman Winchell Campos, was in bed a little past 9 p.m. Friday, a non-sparring day. He worked out for more than two hours at the gym after lunch.
Last Wednesday, Pacquiao skipped training after being tied up in another promotional gig in San Diego, and tried to make up for lost time by sparring 12 rounds the following day.
But while Pacquiao skipped training, Diaz worked out in Chicago, opting to skip the promotional gig reportedly because he didn?t want his weekday training to be disrupted.
Michael Marley of boxingconfidential.com wrote the other day that Pacquiao and Roach ?griped to promoter Bob Arum about why they went to San Diego and Diaz skipped the training interruption.?
?But it?s part of the game. Manny had to be there,? said Campos.
NOTES: Cris Aquino, the perennial flag-bearer in Manny Pacquiao fights in the US, is up to something new. The jolly gun enthusiast, who has this good habit of giving away Pacquiao shirts, jackets, bandanas and other stuff to friends, is bringing in boxes of Pacquiao masks made of cardboard to Las Vegas. ?This is different from our previous giveaways,? said Aquino of the famed Boracay West Cove. ?I?m having them made here. I took a nice picture of Manny to be used for the mask. I ordered 2,500 of them. So anywhere David Diaz looks during the fight, anywhere inside Mandalay Bay, he?ll see Manny. There will be thousands of Pacquiaos inside the fight venue,? said Aquino. Again, he assured friends, as well as custom officials, that these masks will not be sold but given away ? for free. In one of Pacquiao?s previous fights, he was held by US Customs because of the huge quantity of giveaways he brought in. He had no choice but pay the taxes worth $800. He?s hoping it won?t happen this time.
