There is a growing concern over at the Wild Card Boxing Club, the famous gym in Hollywood that is home to Manny Pacquiao?s preparation for Oscar De La Hoya.
It?s not about Pacquiao coming in late for training the past few days nor is it about some sort of an injury or illness that has struck the beloved Filipino boxer.
Chief trainer Freddie Roach and conditioning coach Alex Ariza are both worried that Pacquiao is peaking so fast they still have six weeks before the much-awaited Dec. 6 battle to be held at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas.
“I have to slow him down in training,” said Roach, who was delighted to see Pacquiao hardly miss a single beat in sparring for five rounds on Tuesday with the 5-foot-10 Rashad Holloway, said to be a De La Hoya fight-a-like.
Ariza was blunt in his assessment of Pacquiao?s high-octane performance the last two weeks.
“My only concern right now is how to tell and convince Manny that the fight is not on Nov. 6, but on Dec. 6,” Ariza told the Bulletin yesterday from Los Angeles.
“Everything is right on track. Manny?s been lifting weights, doing high-performance ballistic training and showing lots of speed and power in the gym,” said Ariza, who wakes up early in the morning so he could supervise Pacquiao?s sprints.
Ariza is also present during the gym session in the afternoon and even accompanies Pacquiao back to his apartment unit not only to watch his diet but to impart more techniques as they head into the most demanding phase of the training.
“Right now, Manny walks around 151 to 152 lbs and I expect that weight to get down gradually as his training becomes more intense in the coming weeks,” said Ariza, who is in unison with Roach that Pacquiao should tip the scales at 144 lbs during the weighin and not more than 150 lbs when he answers the bell.
“It would be perfect if Manny weighs 147 lbs during the fight,” added Ariza, who doesn?t believe that De La Hoya has too much advantage in size over the 29-year-old Pacquiao.
“Manny?s going to wear him down and I believe that Manny?s going to take him out in the later rounds. He (De La Hoya) won?t be able to keep phase with Manny.”
Ariza began working with Pacquiao during the preparation for the rematch with Juan Manuel Marquez, was present during the David Diaz fight last June and would again play a pivotal role for the De La Hoya bout as he is well-versed in the aspect of conditioning and weight training.
Told if he has already placed his bet like Roach, who has wagered ,000, Ariza said he is not a gambler but stressed that if he was that kind of guy, he would have not hesitated to do so.
After seeing Pacquiao destroy Diaz and witnessing how Pacquiao has progressed in just two weeks, Ariza is even more convinced that “Manny?s going to be deadlier” at welterweight.
