LOS ANGELES ? Manny Pacquiao, who has a big appetite for winning, isn?t losing his appetite on the table as well as he moved closer toward his March 15 showdown with Juan Manuel Marquez in Las Vegas.
Pacquiao said Thursday after a two-hour workout, which he described as ?light,? that with barely eight days left before the rematch he still enjoys as much food as he wants, as much as he is allowed by his trainers.
It just goes to show that Pacquiao has weight in check.
?No problem with the weight. I can keep on eating,? he told scribes who sought an update on how much he weighs as the fight, a WBC super-featherweight title bout set at 130 lbs, gets closer and closer.
?There?s no problem. I can eat and eat and make up for it in training. That?s why I?m light. Hard training is what I do,? he said.
For lunch and dinner, he goes for his favorite nilagang baka (beef broth), fried salmon, ampalaya, tinolang manok (chicken broth), steamed rice and lots of fruits. He drinks warm milk first thing in the morning.
Pacquiao faces the WBC mandated weigh-in, which comes one week before a fight, on Saturday, with confidence. Under the rules, fighters cannot weigh more than five percent of the limit one week before the fight.
In this case, neither Pacquiao nor Marquez can weigh no more than 136.5 lbs on Saturday, the day the Mexican champion flies into LA from his high-altitude training quarters in Mexico.
?Even if they set the limit (on Saturday) at 135 I will make it,? said Pacquiao, who logged in at 133 lbs last Monday, almost two months after he came in to train at the famous Hollywood gym owned by Freddie Roach.
Pacquiao reportedly arrived here in LA last Jan. 15 at 144 lbs.
It seems that Pacquiao is right on track, and that he should be very, very close to the limit by the time he takes the four-hour, 300-mile journey from LA to Las Vegas on Monday afternoon after his final sparring session in the morning.
?This early, I?m trying to get the weight,? said Pacquiao who normally lands in Vegas five or six days before a fight at around 134 lbs, the reason why he had some problems making 130 against Marco Antonio Barrera last October.
For the first time, he wore his sweat suit in training yesterday, but only after he sparred four rounds each with Ramon Montano and Juanito Garcia. He said he was just trying it on.
As he shadow-boxed on the ring, cooling down after the session, he had to bend a couple of times, letting sweat flow from his body to his arms, out of the grey sweat suit and to the mat.
?Yan ang sabaw (That?s the broth),? he said of his sweat that dripped like a faucet.
Later on he asked Roach why it was over for the day.
?Coach, why is it light?? Pacquiao asked.
He got no answer from his trainer.
