Wednesday, September 12, 2007 Pacquiao in great shape
HERE'S a bit of bad news for Marco Antonio Berrera: Manny Pacquiao is in great shape during training and should be superbly conditioned when he faces the Mexican for the second time around in Las Vegas.
Philboxing.com on Tuesday reported that Pacquiao had, for the first time, sparred for 10 rounds Monday with three different sparring mates at the RWS Gym of Rex "Wakee" Salud in Labangon, Cebu.
The fact that Pacquiao, the Filipino superstar from General Santos City, was so eager to go on with the day's sparring session supervised by trainers Freddie Roach and Buboy Fernandez should be a cause for concern for the Barrera camp.
Fernadez said they are now into the hard training phase and that Pacquiao is so focused on the fight, which is just about three weeks away.
Pacquiao and Barrera will trade leathers in a 12-round super featherweight clash at the posh Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino.
The first time the two boxers met, Pacquiao put on a scintillating show in scoring an 11th-round TKO victory in a fight staged in November of 2003 at The Alamodome in San Antonio, Texas.
Barrera, who is training in Guadalajara, is reportedly bent on avenging that defeat and had Japanese boxers as his sparring mates in training.
Pacquiao sparred four rounds against Aaron Melgarejo, three rounds against Arniel Tinampay, and another three rounds with Mexican Raymundo Beltran. (CRAM)
