Manny Pacquiao all smiles during his Thursday training at Wild Card Gym in Los Angeles. Wendell Alinea/MP Promotions
HOLLYWOOD—Hall of Fame trainer Freddie Roach has no qualms about Manny Pacquiao’s decision to skip the gym Friday.
In fact, Roach backed up Pacquiao’s move to take the afternoon session off.
“I’m actually happy about that because yesterday’s workout was great and he ran real hard this morning,” Roach said.
Pacquiao did eight rounds of sparring, going four rounds each with Jose Roman and Abe Lopez on Thursday.
He then hit the trail at Griffith Park Friday morning.
Coach Freddie Roach “happy” that Manny Pacquiao decided to skip gym training today after “running hard” earlier in the day. Rest also a key part of preparation especially with Thurman fight just 8 days away. pic.twitter.com/ctVDcobsGo
— Mark Giongco (@MarkGiongcoINQ) July 12, 2019
“Like I said, we’re in a four-five day schedule lately and it’s been working really well. Tomorrow (Saturday) I expect him to look great in sparring. Sparring days to me are more important than mitt days at this point and I think he’ll look good tomorrow,” said Roach.
“He ran really, really hard this morning and I think that was enough for him at this point. Everything is right where we wanted it to be.”
Pacquiao, who is eyeing his 62nd win against Kieth Thurman on July 20 in Las Vegas, isn’t getting any younger and rest has been a critical part of his training.
Roach is also wary of the possibility of Pacquiao burning out due to overtraining that’s why he’s paying close attention to the eight-division champion’s regimen.
“Overtraining. He tends to do that. He does overtrain at times. He likes to work so much,” he said.
“He had a really, really good day yesterday. It was a great day because he had days off. He doesn’t realize it but he had a great day yesterday because of those days off.”