MANILA, Philippines – Freddie Roach has gotten wind of Manny Pacquiao’s planned exhibition fight with Korean YouTube influencer and martial artist DK Yoo in December.
Pacquiao’s longtime trainer has a simple message for Yoo: It won’t be a walk in the park.
"Anyone who gets in the ring with Manny is going to earn his money because Manny only knows one way to train for a fight, even if it's an exhibition, and that is HARD," Roach told Philstar.com through Fred Sternburg, who has long served as both his and Pacquiao’s publicist in the US.
On countless occasions, Roach has been a witness to Pacquiao’s seriousness in training at his famed Wild Card Gym in Hollywood in Los Angeles.
He just can’t imagine the 43-year-old Filipino icon, known to train like a man possessed, doing anything less.
Pacquiao and Yoo will duke it out for six two-minute rounds without headgear, their showcase bout being billed as a “charity fight” whose proceeds will go to the victims of the war in Ukraine as well as to Pacquiao’s housing program for the homeless.
The eight-division champion himself said he will treat the exhibition fight as he did his previous ones and train like it’s a “championship fight,” expecting to go toe-to-toe with the 42-year-old Yoo.
Indeed, Yoo, a fight coach who looks more like a K-drama star and whose YouTube channel boasts of over 650,000 subscribers, will have to work hard for his paycheck.