BAGUIO CITY—Rain or shine.
While super typhoon Juan wreaked havoc across Northern Luzon, Manny Pacquiao also fought against the rain and gusty winds just to keep things in schedule in his preparations against Mexican Antonio Margarito.
“Walang ulan ulan,” Pacquiao said.
Pacquiao, who opted to train in Baguio City for the second straight fight, spent an hour fine tuning his speed and endurance—and showing off a bit to bystanders and the media—around the oval at Teacher’s Camp.
The People’s Champ, with his conditioning coach Alex Ariza bellowing the shots from the grassy patch in the middle, started his routine morning workout with sprints and back pedals to enhance his speed before the twisting lateral drills that targets his foot work.
“Go! Go! Go! Arms! Arms! Arms!” yelled Ariza all morning.
“Everything is 100% today,” he said of the workout.
At one point, all the screaming got to Pacquiao, who jokingly shot back: “Shut up, Alex!”
Amir Khan, who arrived in the Philippines around two weeks ago, worked in tandem with Pacman, which in one way, upped the ante.
“He (Amir) is chasing the big dog in the block, and Manny is a competitor, so he’s gonna make sure Amir stays in his place,” Ariza said.
Ariza’s constant yelling was, in fact, really part of the plan for Pacquiao, who apparently had second thoughts this morning about running under the rain.
“It was raining and Manny wasn’t the mood for it (jogging), “said Ariza. “He woke up and he wasn’t feeling it so I have to start snapping him out of it by screaming orders, get his mind focused.”
A pool of reporters waited for Pacman—who they thought was still in bed—around thirty minutes past six in the morning when the rain started falling, but he had already slipped out at the back of the hotel.
But it wasn’t actually the first time that Pacquiao needed to sweat under a heavy downpour and chilly weather.
During training camp in preparation for the tussle against Mexican Marco Antonio Barrera, Pacquiao and his entourage also had to jog around Hollywood in Los Angeles, California despite the pouring rain.
“When we did it the first time, no one knew,” said Team Pacquiao member Buboy Fernandez said of that outing, which was a contrast to Monday’s working with fans, reporters, camera man and photographers panning Pacquiao’s every move.
One question, though, bothered reporters: Could Manny catch a cold by training in the elements?
“No. You just have to warm him up properly. Change all his clothes immediately,” added Ferndandez.
Although Pacquiao has been in his “best” shape since training started, he has been complaining of stiffness in his lower back, which also caused him to skip plyometrics during the afternoon workout at the Shape-up gym.
“When you’re cold like this, you start to ache,” Ariza said.
For Ariza, there are no worries though.
“I like the speed, the times. Today we just got back to where we were last training camp,” he said.
“There are no problems,” Pacquiao said.
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