Sparring with Khan brings Pacquiao out of his shell

MANILA—Pound-for-pound king Manny Pacquiao is fast getting into the kind of shape he needs against Mexican Antonio Margarito in their WBC super welterweight title fight on Nov. 13 in Arlington, Texas. “He was very good. A lot better and we have no problems,” said American trainer Freddie Roach of Pacquiao, who went through 13 rounds on the punch mitts to cap another gruelling regimen yesterday. Team Pacquiao is scheduled to drive down Thursday evening after Pacquiao’s final sparring session at the Shape Up Gym in Baguio City where he will take on WBA light welterweight champion Amir Khan and Michael Medina again. After going four rounds of sparring with Khan and three rounds each with Medina and Glen Tapia the other day, conditioning expert Alex Ariza said Pacquiao “looked good.”  Ariza said the sparring with Khan “brought Manny out of his shell” because he had to deal with the speed of Amir, who is also a big guy at 5-foot-10. Roach said Khan’s sparring will help Pacquiao tremendously since Medina and Tapia were a little bit slow and Pacquiao was “slowing down to their pace.”  “I am using Amir more to bring Manny’s hand speed back. He needs to fight at a high pace. Amir is faster than anybody and I want to bring the speed back in Manny,” Roach said. Roach said he plans to give Pacquiao “two really hard weeks of sparring and then we’ll start tapering off and at fight time we’ll be ready. ” Undefeated Vanes Martirosyan and Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. will be added to the list of sparring partners at the Wild Card Gym in Los Angeles beginning next week. Pacquiao will work out at the Johnny Elorde gym on Friday and leave for the US on Saturday night. Khan said there should be “no  concern over Pacquiao’s condition. He’s been training well and looking in good shape.” While he conceded that Margarito is a big, strong guy, who is  going to be fit as well, “Pacquiao’s speed will be decisive.” “Manny will use the angles and his speed can help him in this fight. Look at the shot that knocked out Ricky Hatton. It was so fast he didn’t see the punch.” Photo by Mark Giongco