Was everything honestly A-OK inside Team Pacquiao?
Nothing wrong, says Floyd Mayweather Jr. himself.
However, after three sparring sessions were cancelled last week, those who have access to the Pacquiao training camp around Hollywood were besieged with questions.
Has Pacquiao been suffering from burnout?
Were the old cramps back to visit Pacquiao’s legs?
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Yesterday, these doubts were readily dispelled with rosy statements coming from inside the Paquiao camp.
Conditioning coach Justin Fortune: “Manny wants to destroy this guy (Mayweather). He’s actually so motivated for this fight we have to pull him back a bit.”
Former world light flyweight champion Rodel Mayol: “Manny is super fit, too fast and strong. If he catches Mayweather with one good punch, it would be over.”
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Of course, Pacquiao workouts were kept from the public, with trainer Freddie Roach also disallowing interviews with Paquiao sparmates.
As Roach had claimed, they should be able to perfect a secret weapon against Mayweather this week.
Out there in Las Vegas, Mayweather continued to train in earnest, calmly.
Mayweather also conceded that Pacquiao, indeed, has very good speed.
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Anyway, Mayweather, according to former Pacquiao conditioning coach Alex Ariza, has been pushing himself to achieve a higher level, goaded by Pacquiao’s fearsome challenge.
This only means that, together with Pacquiao’s frenetic efforts, the supreme level the May 2 superfight could reach has started to manifest itself.
Hold it a bit. While Mayweather had cleared Pacquiao’s preparations, the unbeaten American world boxing champion went out of his way to point to an inferiority which could hound the well-loved Filipino boxing superhero on fight night.
“Good speed,” Mayweather told Yahoo Global Sports anchor Katie Couric.
“But he’s kind of reckless, many moves are not thought about,” Mayweather quickly added.
Mayweather no longer had to explain that his rival commits many mistakes, makes many wasted moves.
Mayweather wanted it known how he would offset Pacquiao’s power and speed with superb control and peak punching precision. He has vowed to dictate the pace.