Sparring marks start of heavy training

BAGUIO CITY, Philippines– Manny Pacquiao did four rounds with David Rodela yesterday and didn’t have a hard time impressing his trainer, Freddie Roach.

“He’s all right,” said Roach at the Shape Up Gym of the Cooyeesan Hotel here.

To the surprise of local mediamen, the celebrated trainer opened the doors to the spacious gym as long as everybody agreed that no pictures would be taken of the sparring session.

Roach had wanted closed-door sessions for Pacquiao, and over the last couple of weeks, except the media day that was held, mediamen were not allowed inside.

Yesterday was the first day of sparring for Pacquiao who will stake his WBO welterweight crown against American Shane Mosley in Las Vegas on May 7.

Pacquiao is expected to log in 15 days of sparring and around 120 rounds, even much lower than that, as he prepares against the fighter who’s never been knocked out before.

Pacquiao will spar again at the Shape Up Gym tomorrow, and on Friday they will break camp in the country’s summer capital to proceed to Manila.

The 32-year-old fighting congressman should spar somewhere in Manila on Saturday, and in the evening Team Pacquiao flies to Los Angeles.

He will train four weeks at the Wild Card Gym in LA with sparring to increase as the days go by, and will cap his training with another week of tapering off in Las Vegas.

Aside from Rodela, now up in Baguio as sparring partner is Shawn Porter, who was also there as Pacquiao geared up for the Miguel Cotto fight.

A couple more sparring partners will jump in when training resumes at the Wild Card Gym.

Roach said the $1,000 bonus is still up for grabs for the first one who can knock down Pacquiao in sparring. It’s been there for quite some time now, and so far no one has succeeded.