By Jose Espinoza: “The fight is won or lost far away from witnesses – behind the lines, in the gym, and out there on the road, long before I dance under those lights.”
Muhammad Ali
While we wait for the most important boxing fight of our generation, let’s take a look at how these two gladiators are preparing to face each other.
Manny Pacquiao:
According to reporter Anthony Hay who reported from the Philippines on Manny Pacquiao’s training regiment only a few days after the fight was announced; there is an extreme focus in Pacquiao who was training on conditioning at a boxing gym in General Santos city.
Pacquiao spent a couple of weeks doing conditioning work in the Philippines before coming to the United States at the beginning of this month for his training camp. He did another two weeks of conditioning at the Wild Card gym before beginning the sparring part of his training on March 17.
His sparring partners include Edis Tatli from Finland and Chicago junior welterweight Kenneth Sims Jr. who apparently has a similar fighting style of Floyd. Contrary to rumors, Guillermo Rigondeaux is not going to be a sparring partner for Manny.
Manny Pacquiao is using the services of trainer Justin Fortune who reportedly is testing Pacquiao’s core strength by beating him repeatedly across the abdomen with a stick.
Pacquiao’s trainer, Freddy Roach, has told badlefthook.com that Manny’s attitude in training shows that he really wants to win and win decisively.
At his best Pacquiao is ferocious with his hand movements, strong with the body and sharp with the feet. All these abilities are obtained through exhausting hours at the gym and add to that workouts with Freddy Roach on techniques to counter Mayweather Jr. and you start to discover why Pacquiao is such a strong fighter. It’s all in hard work.
Floyd Mayweather Jr.:
Mayweather Jr. has always been known as a hard worker in the gym. Just ask Al Mitchel who was coaching the 1996 Olympic team. “He’s always worked so hard on the smallest things. He learned very early in his boxing life that the small things mean a lot,” Mitchel said via Yahoo Sports. “And now, you’ll see him do moves in there that are, to tell you the truth, extremely hard, but he makes ’em look easy. That’s because he’s drilled them so many times to get them perfect. He’s successful because he’s never satisfied, and he wants everything to be perfect.”
In an interview with skysports.com, former WBO cruiserweight champion Johnny Nelson has said that Floyd Mayweather Jr. is using “old school” training methods to get ready for Manny Pacquiao.
Among the new exercises that is being incorporated is chopping wood.
According to Nelson, these exercises are meant to give Floyd more back, shoulder and core muscle strength.
Besides the obvious reference to the fictional fighter Rocky Balboa, there are many fighters that have used chopping wood as a training method. Joe Frazier, Riddick Bowe, Sonny Liston and the first black heavyweight champion Jack Johnson have all used this exercise in their training.
Apart from training, Mayweather Jr. is also focusing on a special diet to get ready for his upcoming fight. Chef Quiana Shanai Jeffries is in charge of preparing daily meals for the welterweight sensation. There are reports on the web that speculate that each meal is costing Floyd around one thousand dollars.
In a nutshell, Mayweather Jr. is taking his training against Manny Pacquiao very seriously and in his own words: “I’m gonna train like no other and push myself to the limit. I have never wanted to win a fight so bad in my life.”
The showdown between these two future hall-of-fame fighters will take place on May 2nd from Las Vegas, Nevada. A fight for the ages.
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