Pacquiao starts sparring this week

MANILA, Philippines – With his showdown with Floyd Mayweather Jr. still a good seven weeks away, Manny Pacquiao is stepping on the gas in preparation for the biggest fight of his career.

A Philboxing.com report by veteran scribe Eddie Alinea said the fighting congressman is set to begin sparring this week against two boxers personally picked by chief trainer Freddie Roach.

One of the sparmates is Kenneth Sims Jr., an undefeated welterweight from Chicago who sports a record of 5-0, with 2 knockouts. The other one is reportedly a junior middleweight from Finland with a record of 24-1.

“Both are very young and have good potentials to become world champions,” said Roach.

The bespectacled trainer added that he still has four other boxers lined up for Pacquiao, who will seek to hand Mayweather his first loss in 47 fights in their clash at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas on May 2.

Pacquiao continues to sweat it out at Roach’s Wild Card Gym in Hollywood, training like a madman for his toughest challenge to date. He said he’s in good shape.

“Okay lang ako, the fight is getting nearer and nearer and the training is getting tougher and tougher,” the WBO welterweight champion told Alinea after a workout Monday.

“We started preparing earlier than in my previous fights because alam naman natin na mabigat ang laban na darating which will define the remaining years of my career,” he added.

Roach, for his part, likes what he sees so far.

“Manny, actually, is in good shape,” said Pacquiao’s longtime cornerman, stressing that the ultimate goal is to knock out Mayweather, which no one has ever done before.

"We will make him (Pacquiao) to be as competitive as we would want him to be able to achieve our target of winning by knockout,” Roach continued.

“We have to win this fight because if we fail, the entire world will be very disappointed.” – Dino Maragay