Pacquiao, who is booked to lock horns with Hector Velazquez of Mexico on Sept. 10 in Los Angeles, yesterday said that he has logged 61 rounds of sparring and is scheduled to add another 12 one of these days as he enters the homestretch of his month-long preparation.
“I feel great and I am doing fine,” Pacquiao said after another workout at the Wild Card Boxing Club in Hollywood. Chief trainer Freddie Roach had stated that by the time Pacquiao enters the ring at Staples Center, he would already be armed with close to 100 rounds of sparring.
Asked about the possibility of becoming burned out, Pacquiao answered in the negative.
“I am used to sparring against three different guys in one training session,” added the power-puncher from General Santos City.
Lined up to spar with Pacquiao behind closed doors are regular sparmate Israel Vazquez and two others who were tapped to toughen up the Filipino for the vicious body punches of Velazquez, a 30-year-old native of Tijuana who climbs the ring a heavy underdog.
Top Rank, which is putting up the card dubbed “Double Trouble”, is aiming to use the Sept. 10 card as a springboard to a megabuck rematch between Pacquiao and Erik Morales sometime in early 2006. Morales faces Zahir Raheem in the co-main event.
Pacquiao arrived in the US on Aug. 7 and the following day he was at the gym working out under the watchful eyes of Roach. Two days later, he began sparring with Vazquez.
Pacquiao and Velazquez are going to fight in the super-featherweight limit of 130 lbs and the official weighin will be held at the Staples Center at 4 p.m. on the eve of the fight.
