It is barely 19 days before Manny Paquiao fights again.
It was reported earlier that our boxing hero is 90 percent ready.
Chief Pacquiao trainer, Freddie Roach, has confidently said so.
From Pacquiao’s bosom buddy, Buboy Fernandez, this: “No way we could lose. Manny is as fast and clever as ever.” Buboy now holds almost equal training powers with Roach.
As his usual habit, Pacquiao trains twice a day in Los Angeles, California, after flying to his US base some two weeks back.
Basically, he jogs at the famed Griffith Park in the morning, shadow boxes afterwards and does calisthenics.
I have an affinity with Griffith as I’ve played golf at its course with “glassmate” Jake P. Ayson several times before driving to nearby San Diego to cover the World Junior golf champonships, where we “discovered” the nine-year-old Tiger Woods then.
Pacquiao’s training will see him spar, hit the medicine ball and engage either Roach or Buboy in simulated punches thrown by the PacMan.
But curiously enough, there is no clear favorite yet in the Las Vegas bout between Pacquiao, 40, and Keith Thurman, 30, from sunny St. Petersburg, Florida.
There is not a whiff of the usual screaming stream of bets from Vegas gambling stations, either favoring Pacman overwhelmingly or not.
This, even as Thurman, very brazenly brave in his pronouncements, has promised to win by knockout and send PacMan into retirement in their MGM Grand fight on July 21, 2019 (PHL time).
Record-wise, Thurman appears tough, winning all 29 of his 29 fights and drawing one. Impeccably enough, only eight of his past 30 foes survived a knockout.
But a cursory look at his victims would show only two worthy fighters: Danny Garcia and Shawn Porter. Virtually the rest were nondescripts.
This will be Pacquiao’s 70th fight, with 39 knockouts decorating his 60 wins.
So, whether Pacquiao is the favorite or not, his wealth of experience will come in handy in the world welterweight clash.
If Thurman loses for the first time, even his trainer will feel convinced. Gut feel.