Pacquiao determined and focused in training for fight against unbeaten Mayweather
‘I MUST BEAT HIM’
Hollywood—Everytime he runs, everytime he trains, everytime he spars, Manny Pacquiao has Floyd Mayweather on his mind.
That’s why, Pacquiao ignores pain, shuns tiredness and draws from his inner reserves whenever he feels like giving up his quest for the unified world welterweight crown.
“What I always do is focus on Mayweather,” said Pacquiao in Filipino Saturday. “I must beat him.”
And he can always think of Mayweather as a target as the image of the unbeaten American is embossed on the speedball he’s been pounding daily at Wild Card Gym here.
Pacquiao reached the height of preparations for Mayweather when he sparred for 12 rounds at Wild Card Gym, the first time he did so in the course of training camp for the Mayweather showdown set May 2 at MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas.
“It (sparring) went well,” Pacquiao told Manila-based sportswriters before he ate at Nat’s Thai Food, a few steps away from Freddie Roach’s famed gym. “It was beautiful.”
Fact is, Roach was very happy with the 12-round sparring session he did against two spar mates, according to Pacquiao.
“From the first round to the 12th, there was no slowdown,” said Pacquiao. “What I did in the first and second rounds, I also did in the 11th and 12th.
“I went all-out,” added Pacquiao, who displayed his readiness to tangle with Mayweather by flexing the muscles on his left arm.
“It’s like steel,” one sportswriter said after touching and measuring Pacquiao’s flexed biceps.
Pacquiao smiled, posed for pictures and proceeded to join his father, Rosalio, brothers Roel and Bobby, and other relatives at the reserved tables for late lunch at it was past 4 p.m. here.
The arrival of his mother, Dionisia, and Rosalio is expected to further boost Pacquiao’s morale, already on a high as his wife, Jinkee, and their five children arrived earlier in this glitzy hub of the film industry to lend personal support.
Pacquiao is on a personal and moral crusade to beat Mayweather, who imposed his conditions during the negotiations, asserting that he is the A side.
After Pacquiao ran up and down Griffith Park from the steeper Bronson Canyon, assistant trainer Buboy Fernandez declared that the eight-division world champion has reached peak form. /Inquirer
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