Pacquiao awes Roach during US training Day 1 for Spence fight

The moment Manny Pacquiao’s punches landed on the mitts, Freddie Roach felt glad. The Hall of Fame trainer is sure their training camp for Errol Spence will be a breeze, as always.

“If this is how Manny hits with jet lag, I may need to get new gloves with thicker padding for our next sessions,” said Roach. 

“He was incredibly sharp for his first day. He hit hard with good power,” he told publicist Fred Strenburg on Monday, July 5 (Tuesday, July 6, Philippine time) after his first workout with Pacquiao in two years at his Wild Card Boxing Club in Hollywood.

They’ve been doing the same thing for two decades since Pacquiao barged into the United States boxing scene in June 2001 by snatching the International Boxing Federation super bantamweight belt from Lehlo Ledwaba, who died July 2 at his hometown in South Africa due to COVID-19.

No wonder that Pacquiao, now boxing’s lone 8-division world champion, continues to awe Roach.

“After all these years, I’m still amazed at the great condition he’s in when he comes to training camp. After traveling around the world yesterday, he put in a full day here – mitts, speed bag, shadow boxing – the works.”

Afterward, Pacquiao, who’ll be chasing Spence’s World Boxing Council and IBF welterweight crown on August 21 at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, proudly showed Roach the result of his training sessions with Buboy Fernandez and Nonoy Neri in General Santos City.

“The best part was at the end, when he lifted his shirt to show me his six-pack and said, ‘Freddie, I’m still here.'”

Roach, of course, knows that Pacquiao, hours after his arrival in Los Angeles from Manila, began the day with a five-mile (eight-kilometer) run from his home to Pan Pacific Park, shadow-boxed, and did abdominal exercises marked by 1,000 sit-ups under the supervision of strength and conditioning coach Justin Fortune.

Pacquiao ate breakfast, took a nap, and was given a random drug test from the Voluntary Anti-Doping Association at his house before reporting for work at Wild Card.

According to Pacquiao, now 42 years old, the unbeaten Spence, 31, could be his ultimate test.

“Errol Spence is a very difficult fight for me; perhaps the most difficult of my career,” said Pacquiao.

“But I have been an underdog my whole life. I am used to that. It is why I work so hard. But the love and the prayers of my fellow Philippine citizens and Filipinos around the world sustain and inspire me. I fight for the glory of our nation and for underdogs everywhere.” – Rappler.com