Floyd Mayweather Jr. and Manny Pacquiao FILE PHOTO
MANILA, Philippines—Both Manny Pacquiao and Floyd Mayweather Jr. will officially start training on Monday (Tuesday in Manila) for their welterweight Super Fight on May 2 at MGM Grand in Las Vegas.
Pacquiao arrived in Los Angeles Saturday night and will rest the whole day Sunday for the tough eight-week grind ahead.
Waiting for Pacquiao at chief trainer Freddie Roach’s Wild Card Gym in Hollywood is strength and conditioning coach Justin Fortune, who’ll be in charge of preparations with assistant trainer Buboy Fernandez while Roach is away.
Roach is still in Macau to attend to Chinese superstar Zhou Shiming, who will be gunning for the International Boxing Federation flyweight title against Thai Amnat Ruenroeng on March 7.
The seven-time trainer of the year will take charge of training camp starting on March 9 up to Team Pacquiao’s transfer to Las Vegas on fight week.
Accompanied by adviser Michael Koncz and younger brother Bobby, Pacquiao took the late flight bound for Los Angeles Saturday. Fernandez, fellow assistant trainer Nonoy Neri and five other Team Pacquiao members went on a separate flight that would entail a stopover in Vancouver, Canada, before heading for LA.
Pacquiao evaded the media and headed directly to his Hancock Park home in LA, only to be met by an ABS-CBN crew.
“I’m ready mentally and spiritually for May 2,” said Pacquiao, who earlier said eight weeks will be enough for him to reach tip-top shape for the megabuck bout projected to gross over $300 million and shatter all other boxing revenue records.
Like Pacquiao, the unbeaten Mayweather (47-0), a 2 1/2 to 1 favorite, will step up training and hit the gym on Monday.
Key figures in Mayweather’s training team are his father, Floyd Sr., uncle Roger Mayweather, venerable cutman Rafael Garcia and strength and conditioning adviser Alex Ariza, a former member of Team Pacquiao before his falling out with Roach in 2012.
“I’m not worried about when Mayweather would start training. It’s Manny whom I’m concerned with,” Koncz told sportswriters after the PBA Commissioner’s Cup game between KIA, where Pacquiao sits as playing coach, and Blackwater won by the Elite at The Arena in San Juan. “What’s important is Manny has been going to the gym a lot the past few days because he’s playing a lot of basketball lately.”