Pacquiao Fully Prepared for Thurman
The anticipated WBA title fight between “regular” welterweight champion Manny Pacquiao and “super” champion Keith Thurman is still three weeks away, but the legendary eight-division world champion feels ready to go “now.”
The two collide on July 20 in Las Vegas, Nevada, and Thurman has fired off several verbal jabs at Pacquiao in which he says he will retire the legendary Filipino boxer.
Pacquiao, meanwhile, has previously stated he is looking forward to getting into the ring and shutting “One Time” up, and it appears he’s even more eager than ever.
“They can bring the enemy today or anytime from now and face him off,” Pacquiao said. “I have been preparing for this fight for more than a month, dividing my time as a lawmaker and a fighter and I believe I’ve done enough to prepare myself, for the fight.
“Thanks to my trainers, who like me have been sacrificing their time and efforts to prepare me for this, one of the most important fights of my career as a fighter. But most of all I thank God for giving me, at my age, all the strength and resolve to continue serving Him in the best way I can.”
Pacquiao has been training at the Wild Card Gym in Hollywood, California, alongside Hall of Fame trainer Freddie Roach, chief trainer Buboy Fernandez and strength and conditioning coach Justin Fortune.
“While there is some disagreement between Pacquiao and Roach as to when Pacquiao will be in “perfect” fighting condition (Pacquiao claims 10 days before the fight compared to Roach’s seven), all seem to agree that if Pacquiao has hit his peak this early, then it is what it is.
The team of “Pac Man” is certainly not surprised at how good Pacquiao feels at this stage of training.
“Manny’s been really very aggressive in this training camp and I’m not surprised if he, indeed, feels he can fight already this early,” Fortune said. “That makes everything easy for us from hereon. That certainly reduced our problems to seeing to it that Manny doesn’t get sick or overtrained.”
Original Story: The Manila Times