Manny Pacquiao Opens Up on Floyd Mayweather Fight, Shadow-Boxes in Street
Manny Pacquiao’s preparations for his megafight with Floyd Mayweather have stepped up a gear, and the Filipino star insists he is "100 per cent confident" he will emerge victorious.
The illustrious duo will settle a long-standing score when they get in the ring on May 2 at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, but there have been some lingering concerns that both men are past their very best coming into the fight. Pacman doesn’t think that’s the case, though.
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“It'll be as good of a fight as it would've been five years ago," Pacquiao said, according to Lance Pugmire of the Los Angeles Times. "The same. Both of us are still at the top.”
As noted in Pugmire’s piece, the 36-year-old will undergo preparations for this bout at the Wild Card Boxing Club in Hollywood, a venue where he first linked up with trainer Freddie Roach 14 years ago. Its location, which the man from the Philippines admitted stirred fond memories of younger days, is something that could help him in a fight he enters as the underdog:
"Back then, I thought, 'I just want to have a good fight, to fight for a championship.' I thought of being hungry, excited to focus on training.
[…]
It's a good thing to be an underdog. It helps me a lot. You're more focused on training. I feel like I'm at the start again. I've always been an underdog.
"
Roach will be spearheading the camp, and over the years, he and Pacquiao have enjoyed a fruitful relationship. The fight with Mayweather will be their 31st as a partnership, and Roach has insisted that this familiarity in the preparations could give Pacquiao the edge come fight night:
"What I want Manny to do — to make sure we're both on the same page.
A lot of times, you show a guy something he's not comfortable with, they'll try it just to please you, but they won't ever do it in a fight. Manny and I have a friendship where he'll tell me if he will try it, or we'll just throw it out.
"
Pacquiao’s training hasn’t been limited to the iconic Hollywood venue, however. As noted by Oliver Todd of the MailOnline, the fighter is currently in the midst of “road work out training” and treated some passers-by to a display of nifty shadow-boxing.
Here’s a look at the clip, which displays Pacquiao's lighting-quick fists:
In shape like that at this relatively early stage of his training camp, it’s little surprise that Pacquiao is confident of victory and has claimed he is “100 per cent” sure of triumphing once he gets in the ring with the undefeated Mayweather, per Pugmire’s piece.
But it seems as though the American is in pretty feisty shape himself at the moment, as was tweeted by Bleacher Report:
The fight may well have come a little too late for it to be a peak spectacle, but that could be a good thing for Pacquiao. Mayweather was immaculate in his defensive diligence when the pair initially scheduled a bout back in 2008, but in recent encounters—especially in the two recent fights against Marcos Maidana—a few small gaps have started to open up in Money’s armoury.
While the Argentine wasn’t subtle enough to exploit those weaknesses, Pacquiao definitely is. In his previous bout against Chris Algieri (although the American wasn’t quite a top-class opponent), Pacquiao’s patented ferocity, accuracy and intensity were ominously prevalent. Mayweather remains a defensive master, but it’ll be intriguing to see whether he can combat that level of dynamism.
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