Roach cancels sparring sessions, says Pacquiao doesn’t want to stop
(AP File Photo/Nick Ut)
For fear of Manny Pacquiao reaching peak form too soon, trainer Freddie Roach cancelled his student’s sparring sessions for Wednesday (Manila time).
In a report from PhilBoxing.com, Roach ordered that Pacquiao’s afternoon sparring sessions be cancelled and expressed his concern of the possibility that Pacquiao is over-trained and pushed to near over fatigue.
“As you know, Manny is a freak as far as training is concerned. While he knows how to prepare himself for a fight, he has the tendency to overdo things up,” Roach said. “Frankly, I really have no problem with him as far as training is concerned, my problem though is he doesn’t want to stop,” he said. “My problem, actually, is how to hold him back.”
Pacquiao will face arguably the best fighter that he can possibly fight in Floyd Mayweather Jr. on May 2 at MGM Grand Garden Arena to unify the WBO, WBC, and WBA Welterweight titles and see who the greatest fighter of their era is.
READ: Contrasting buildups for Pacquiao, Mayweather
Roach said the most he can do to stop Pacquiao from pushing himself too hard is to simply tell the eight-division World Champion to stop and rest.
He added that Pacquiao would often train further than what he intended for the day.
“Manny, you see is very energetic When he trains, he really trains as in he trains,“ Roach said. “Sometimes, during sparring, I would set a 10-round session, but he’ll still ask for one or two more rounds.”
“When we do the mitts for 12 rounds, he will ask for more and so on and so forth. I really have to put him to where he should be. I have to put the reign on him like a horse.”
For more updates on Pacquiao-Mayweather “Fight of the Century,” visit The Pacquiao Files.
