By Chris Williams: 33-year-old WBO welterweight champion Manny Pacquiao (54-3-2, 38 KO’s) will begin training later this or possibly in early April for his June 9th fight against 28-year-old Timothy Bradley (28-0, 12 KO’s) at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, Nevada. This will be the third title defense for Pacquiao and he’s obviously hoping he’ll do better than he did in his last fight against 38-year-old Juan Manuel Marquez last November.

Pacquiao is still winning he but he sure didn’t look like a winner in the Marquez fight that’s for sure. Marquez showed – for the third time – that Pacquiao can’t handle a counter puncher.

Pacquiao told the manilatimes.net “I guess it would be late March or first week of April. I think I’ll stay in Baguio before going to the Wildcard gym in Los Angels for the last week of my training.”

Pacquiao supposedly won’t be training any longer or any harder than he did for his questionable win over Marquez. That’s too bad because that “Win” really showed that there are quite a few problems with Pacquiao’s game that need fixing for him to get a win over a fighter like Bradley. For one, Pacquiao’s legs are coming down with cramps more and more. That’s a sign that he may be getting worked too hard in training camp. My advice would be for him to back off with all the strenuous work he’s been doing with his trusty strength and conditioning coach Alex Ariza and to focus instead on using more time for sparring.

All the exercising Pacquiao is doing is making him get tired out for his fights and he’ll need to save as much energy as possible if he wants to get past Bradley. Okay, so lose Ariza would be more first recommendation. The second thing Pacquiao needs to do is get someone to help Roach train. Pacquiao needs a second trainer that can actually teach him some defense so he doesn’t get hit quite so much. I know Roach is good at certain things, but I never saw him as a defensive trainer. He’s good for the things he teaches on offense but I see him as a one trick pony good for a few basic moves but that’s about it. Pacquiao needs to stop getting hit quite so often because he’s getting lit up in almost every fight now.