Manny Pacquiao will be put under a litmus test Tuesday afternoon (Wednesday morning in Manila) at the Wild Card Boxing Club in Hollywood.
Pacquiao is scheduled to hold his first sparring session possibly against exworld featherweight champion Freddie Norwood, whose southpaw style will somehow mimic the stance of David Diaz, the Chicago native Pacquiao will face on June 28 in Las Vegas.
The sparring session will happen one week after the 29-year-old Pacquiao arrived in Los Angeles to start the six-week training camp for the upset-conscious Diaz, whose World Boxing Council lightweight crown will be on the line at Mandalay Bay.
After the afternoon workout, Pacquiao and Freddie Roach and a select few members of his entourage will fly to Chicago on a priovate plane leased by Top Rank chief Bob Arum for a major promotional event there the following day.
Later on Wednesday, Pacquiao will fly back to Los Angeles in time for another sparring day.
Under Freddie Roach?s program, Pacquiao will spar on Tuesday, Thursday and saturday until a week or five days before the Diaz bout and by the time the Filipino star tapers off in training, he would have probably logged over 100 rounds of sparring under his belt.
Before leaving the country, Pacquiao, who will be making his debut at 135 lbs, trained most of the time in his hometown of General Santos City under the watchful eyes of longtime training assistant Buboy Fernandez.
Pacquiao said over the weekend that he is raring to begin sparring.
