On Wednesday afternoon inside of the Wild Card Boxing Club in Los Angeles, California, Manny Pacquiao could be found hosting an open media workout in advance of his May 7th clash against Shane Mosley, set to be held inside of the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, Nevada. While Mosley’s open media workout last week was an almost casual occasion, it was again a crowded and lively scene for Pacquiao as he appeared before the press for his particular duties.
Outside of people from the world of media, there were other boxing luminaries in the building, all of them tied to Pacquiao in some sort of fashion, from his promoter Bob Arum, trainer Freddie Roach, and sparring partners Karim Mayfield and Shawn Porter. In the back room you could also find featherweight contender Bernabe Concepcion and welterweight hopeful Rashad Holloway having a talk, as each man is training for upcoming fights of their own.
<--- Massive slideshow: Inside the Wild Card with Manny Pacquiao, Freddie Roach, Bernabe Concepcion, Shawn Porter, Alex Ariza, Jalen Rose, Rashad Holloway and others
One of the first notables I ran into was Pacquiao’s strength and conditioning coach Alex Ariza, who revealed that Pacquiao is having such a great camp that he is concerned about his fighter perhaps even peaking too early. Towards the end of the day former NBA star Jalen Rose would even make an appearence and gave his thoughts as to why a Pacquiao fight hasn’t happened with his fellow Michigan native Floyd Mayweather.
All in all it was business as usual for Pacquiao, who fielded questions from reporters from over thirty minutes before engaging in a light workout with Roach. It made for good fun but the real battle, which is now less than three weeks away, is what everyone is waiting for.
For images of all the action please visit the slideshow on the left or click HERE
Chris Robinson is based out of Las Vegas, Nevada. He can be reached at [email protected]
