by Derick Ramos
On May 2nd, Manny Pacquiao will be fighting the biggest fight of his life against unbeaten American, Floyd Mayweather. As each day passes, each punch and each hit Pacquiao dishes out in his training camp is put under the microscope. While his trainer Freddie Roach tries to solve the Mayweather puzzle, Pacquiao will need to solve a lingering issue in his career of cramping in his calves.
Pacquiao’s calves are a major source of his punching power and he will need every advantage he can get when he takes on Mayweather. Roach has been working with Pacquiao’s strength and conditioning coach, Justin Fortune, to solve the issue but know there’s no easy fix.
“There’s no magic cure for it,” Roach told Yahoo Sports. “We’re doing what we can do. I’ve got the doctors working on it.”
In an effort to reduce leg issues including shin splints, Fortune has reduced uphill running and has had Pacquiao run on a rubberized track at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA).
Despite the cramping, Pacquiao continued his sparring with fighters that were hired to mimic Floyd Mayweather’s style of fighting. Welterweight prospect and 8-time U.S. National Champion Kenneth SIms, Jr found out that Pacquiao still has a lot of speed and punching power suffering a bleeding nose from a straight left. Fortune wanted to send the message to Mayweather to let him know that Pacquiao will be good to go once the opening bell rings.
“You see how strong especially his legs are?” Fortune told a reporter. “I want you to report on this so Floyd Mayweather, Jr will know how fast and strong our fighter is.”
With all the sparring partners Pacquiao will be using, Roach says he has a secret sparring partner he is saving for the end of training camp dubbing it as his secret weapon.
“I’ve got one that I’m going to use in the last two weeks and is one that used to work at Mayweather’s gym and was part of Mayweather’s camp,” Roach said. “He said that Mayweather had disrespected him and they kind of just threw him aside, so I took him on”.
Roach intends to keep the identity of the sparring partner a secret.
Quick Hits: Manny Pacquiao isn’t the only Filipino fighter in the spotlight. Lineal world light flyweight champion Donnie Nietes defeated Mexican Gilberto Parra of Mexico at the Smart Araneta Coliseum in Quezon City. On the same card, The Filipino Flash Nonito Donaire made another step towards his comeback beating Brazilian William Prado via TKO in the second round to claim the NABF super bantamweight title… Undefeated British fighter Kell Brook took only four rounds to defeat Jo Jo Dan to defend his IBF welterweight title successfully… Gary Russell, Jr scored four knockdowns and stopped Jhonny Gonzalez in four rounds to improve to 26-1 to claim the WBC featherweight title.
