Pacman regains Arum’s trust

from: By Dennis Principe / manilastandardtoday.com

BAGUIO City —All fighting congressman Manny Pacquiao needed was a day’s rest, belt out a few songs and one more workout for the pound-for-pound king to regain the confidence of his American promoter Bob Arum.

In the country since Saturday to observe his prized ward’s preparations, Arum’s face lit up instantly with what he saw yesterday when the Filipino icon did eight rounds of mitts with trainer Freddie Roach -- a stark contrast to what an unenthusiastic promoter witnessed last weekend at Cooyesan Hotel’s Shape-Up boxing gym.

“He looked much better today than he did on Saturday. What I saw today really gives me, as Manny’s promoter, a lot more confidence because I love the way he was using his right hand,” said Arum in an interview with Manila Standard while he was in the middle Pacquiao’s workout.

Over the weekend, Pacquiao staged a mini-concert in the same hotel for friends, supporters and wife Jinkee, then had his usual Sunday rest.

In his morning activity yesterday, Pacquiao doused some cool, Baguio City rainwater to fiery insinuations of a supposed inconsistent training camp here.

Notwithstanding the alarming Signal no. 4 storm warning with the Northern Philippine entry of Typhoon Juan, Pacquiao braved the rains and did his usual morning roadwork at the soaked track oval of the Teachers Camp.

For more than an hour, Pacquiao did a few sprints and plyometric drills under the supervision of conditioning coach Alex Ariza as Manila-based press people, here to cover a scheduled media day, also observed the early morning training.

Ariza later on declared that his ward was about to regain the speed that terrified the best among the best of all seven divisions, which the pound-for-pound king have so far conquered.

“Manny got his speed back because we brought him down to 148 lbs,”said Ariza afterwards.

Now on his fourth week here, Pacquiao has been getting flak for opting to play basketball. He also missed significant days of early- morning runs, which did not sit well with Roach.

Roach and Pacquiao have a pact regarding the hoops schedule where both agreed to a hard-court time off once they enter the last four weeks of their 12-round training for the fight with Antonio Margarito on Nov. 13 at the Dallas Cowboys Stadium in Arlington, Texas.

“Two weeks pa naman, pero maganda na pakiramdam ko at sa tingin ko, makukuha pa natin ‘yung speed kung magdagdag pa tayo ng timbang,” said Pacquiao.

But a Pacquiao who is not in perfect shape at this point is something that is not creating any concern from Arum.

“The conditioning is gonna come. He is in better condition than 99% of the fighters today. But he’s gotta be 100%, but not at this time because that would cause some worries. It means he is peaking too soon and that is the worst thing that can happen to a boxer,” concluded Arum.