By Chris Williams: Trainer Freddie Roach says that WBO welterweight champion Manny Pacquiao (56-5-2, 28 KOs) broke sparring partner Viktor Postol’s nose during a sparring session several days ago.
Postol, an unbeaten light welterweight, is helping Pacquiao get prepared for his November 22nd fight against undefeated Chris Algieri (20-0, 8 KOs) for their fight at the Cotai Arena, Venetian Resort, Macau, in Macau S.A.R., China.
The 5’11” Postol is arguably the best of the three sparring partners that Roach brought over to Macau to help Pacquiao. The other two are Mike Jones and Stan Martyniouk. Pacquiao reportedly hurt Jones already. However, he didn’t hurt him bad enough to where he needed to be sent home so that’s a good thing.
Roach is talking about wanting to bring in another sparring partner to have as a reserve for Pacquiao to have a fresh body there if needed. Postol is still in the Pacquiao camp despite his broken nose.
“Manny broke Postol’s nose three days ago. But Postol’s okay. I train him. He’s a fighter, he’s a tough kid and he’s not going home,” Roach said via http://www.scmp.com.“We know this guy, he [Algieri] should take that as a compliment. I brought in guys who fight just like him [Algieri]. I bring everything, so whatever he [Algieri} brings to the table, we will be ready for him,” said Roach.
Jones, Postol and Martyniouk don’t fight anything like Algieri. They’re all tall like him, but they don’t move a great deal. They jab a lot, but none of them have Algieri’s defensive skills or ability to move around the ring. Roach needed to find someone tall that can move and jab like Algieri, because the guys that are in Pacquiao’s camp right now aren’t similar to Algieri.
It’s lucky for Pacquiao he hasn’t suffered an injury during the camp, but Roach conveniently didn’t bring in any big punchers. That obviously helps a lot.
The sparring from Postol likely isn’t all that good now that he’s got a broken nose slowing him down. I wonder if Roach is making a mistake in keeping him around the camp instead of sending him back home and replacing him with a healthy body.
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