Pacquiao puts breaks in training

MANILA, Philippines – Wary of either peaking too soon or worse, a burnout, Manny Pacquiao took a break from training Thursday and just rested at his home in Los Angeles.

A member of Team Pacquiao said the Filipino icon spent the day serenading family members and friends with his guitar at his posh home, looking relaxed and worry-free less than a month before his collision with fellow champion Keith Thurman.

The 40-year-old Pacquiao no longer trains like he used to in his heydays, and his team makes sure to insert some rest days into his schedule.

Since arriving in Los Angeles over a week ago, Pacquiao had been running the hills of Griffith Observatory or jogging at the flatter and less-challenging Pan Pacific Park in the morning. In the afternoon, he undergoes hard training at Freddie Roach’s Wild Card Gym in Hollywood.

A day before skipping training, he sparred five rounds each with young fighters AB Lopez and Arnold Gonzalez.

“Based on our assessment, our fighting senator is now at 90% condition,” Buboy Fernandez, Pacquiao’s chief trainer, told Steve Angeles of ABS-CBN’s Balitang America.

Pacquiao is entering his 71st professional fight, this time against Thurman, who is 10 years his junior. On July 20 at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas (July 21 Manila time), he will try to unify his WBA “regular” championship against Thurman’s “super” title.

The fighting senator, a slight underdog in the fight, understands that he is facing a dangerous stud in Thurman, who is undefeated in 29 fights, 22 of which came by knockout.

Pacquiao’s team just wants to make sure that their ageing fighter is in perfect shape. 

“It’s really important that we maintain his conditioning,” Fernandez added.

The other day at his home, Pacquiao sat down in a lengthy one-on-one interview with Yahoo! Sports’ Kevin Iole, talking in detail about boxing in general and answered some questions about the Thurman bout.

Asked what he makes of Thurman’s loud mouth, Pacquiao stressed  that it serves as one of his motivations to win.

“I told him in case of face-to-face, he's not helping him but it's helping me. The way he talked like that, those trash talks...It's not helping him, but it's helping me,” he said.

“I like what he’s  saying to me. It gives more motivation to me to work hard, determination to focus. I love it and it’s helping me.”