JHACK Tepora is on track in getting back into fighting form as he joins Filipino superstar Manny Pacquiao’s training camp in Gen. Santos City.
“My training is going well. My conditioning is also good,” the 23-year-old Tepora told SunStar Cebu.
Tepora is preparing for the biggest fight of his career thus far, a world title fight against Mexican Edivaldo Ortega for the vacant World Boxing Association (WBA) featherweight crown as the main supporting bout of Pacquiao’s fight against WBA welterweight champion Lucas Matthysse on July 15 in the Axiata Arena in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
Aside from picking up tips from watching Pacquiao train, Tepora got a huge morale booster after a quick chat with the legendary Filipino fighter.
“Yes, I talked to him (Pacquiao). He told me to train hard,” he said. “It has given me added inspiration.” Tepora, 21-0 with 16 knockouts, flew from Cebu to Gen. Santos City last Sunday along with his coaches, headed by Jinggoy Junco.
Tepora, a native of Danao, Cebu, had unbeaten Cebuano Dave Peñalosa as his sparring partner at the Pacman Wild Card Gym in the past few days.
“Our sparring went well. It was equal, I hit him, he hit me,” he said.
Junco believes that Tepora’s training is going really well in Gen. Santos City and that they will have no problem making weight on the fight date.
“We are going for six rounds. It’s great timing that he’s (Peñalosa) training here for his fight,” Junco said of Tepora’s sparring sessions with Peñalosa, the son of two-division world champion Dodie Boy Peñalosa. “It was great. Jhack moved very good and he was very hard to hit. So far, so good. His conditioning is great. Jhack is in good shape. He is actually 10 pounds over his fighting weight. We’re right on track. We are cutting down in weight slowly so that we won’t be cramming near the fight. What’s important is his conditioning and a good performance in sparring. Our target when we go home on June 30 is to make it just six pounds over the weight limit.” (EKA)