Pacquiao jars sparring foe; Manny’s basketball worries fans

By: 14 years ago

HIS TIMING expectedly still needs some fine-tuning, but pound-for-pound king Manny Pacquiao can already find his spots and sneak in those bombs during his first sparring session at his training camp in Baguio City yesterday.

Pacquiao uncorked a left straight that landed squarely on the jaw of Glen Tapia midway in the second round, jarring the promising light middleweight.

“It [sparring] was beautiful,” assistant trainer Nonoy Neri told the Inquirer in Filipino yesterday. “He’s still lacking in finesse and his timing was a little bit off, but Manny’s okay. He’ll regain them in the coming days as he steps up sparring.”

Pacquiao went four rounds with the 20-year-old Tapia, a strong puncher who has a record of 7-0 with 5 knockouts.
Chief trainer Freddie Roach shut down the gym and cleared it of onlookers yesterday, including members of the media and even some Team Pacquiao members.

Pacquiao’s adviser Michael Koncz echoed Neri’s observation: “It was a good four rounds of sparring.”

Koncz had no explanation as to why it was previously mentioned that Pacquiao would spar with the bigger and far more experienced Michael “Murder Man” Medina, who has a record of 24-2-2 with 19 knockouts.

Evidently, Tapia was reserved for Pacquiao’s second sparring session on Saturday which is scheduled for six rounds.

Pacquiao once again played basketball on Wednesday night and skipped his morning run around Burnham Park.
Koncz said Pacquiao didn’t jog precisely because he played basketball, which is one way he likes to get in shape physically.

Koncz allayed fans’ fears that too much basketball could open up the danger of aggravating his foot injury, saying there was no need to worry and that everything was on schedule.

Roach had earlier said that Pacquiao would be allowed to play basketball only up to one month before the Margarito fight. With a report from Roy Luarca