FREDDIE ROACH sounded as though he had just opened the doors of the Wild Card Boxing Club when the Bulletin caught up with him yesterday morning when it was already way past 7 p.m. of Monday in Los Angeles.
“Manny’s doing really great,” said Roach a few hours after Pacquiao walked out of his gym after another hard day’s work sweating it out with three different sparmates.
With a little over 10 days remaining before Pacquiao dukes it out with Erik Morales for the third time, Roach was unusually chirpy at that late hour considering he had undergone another torrid session with one of the fight game’s top performers.
“I don’t have no worries right now and Manny’s doing what he is supposed to do and I am satisfied with what he’s been showing (during workouts),” said Roach, whose Wild Card on Vine Street in Hollywood will be a buzz of activity with the holding of a media day for the Filipino slugger on Thursday.
“Everything’s going smoothly,” assured Roach, who is more than just Pacquiao’s trainer.
Roach said Pacquiao will again spar on Wednesday and for the last time on Saturday, on the eve of Team Pacquiao’s departure for Las Vegas for the 300-mile journey there.
Roach actually won’t be around on Friday as he will go out of town to work the corner of another fighter but is heading back to Los Angeles on Saturday in time to catch Pacquiao’s last sparring session.
After a rest day on Sunday, Pacquiao will train at the IBA Gym just a few blocks off famed Las Vegas Boulevard on Monday until Thursday, according to Roach.
A press conference is scheduled for Thursday at the Cox Concourse inside the sprawling UNLV campus that houses the Thomas and Mack Center and the official weigh-in is also booked there on Friday.
Meanwhile, reports from Morales’ high-altitude training camp in the Otomi mountains reveal that the Tijuana native is already tapering off in his preparations, the Spanish-language daily La Opinion said.
There is a strong chance that Morales would also be using the Cleto Reyes gloves instead of the Japan-brand Winning.
Pacquiao prefers the Reyes because it is said to be the punchers’ gloves, while the Winning, which Morales wore in the first two fights, is noted for its heavy padding in the knuckle area, a protection for boxers with brittle hands.
