With Manny Pacquiao set to face Keith Thurman next month, Pacquiao recently made his way Stateside to begin his U.S. training camp out of the Wild Card Gym. And in this early portion of camp, trainer Freddie Roach is already raving about the way Pacquiao is looking and performing, saying it’s clear that he’s motivated and that they’ll have to pull the reigns on him to keep him from peaking too soon.
“I was very pleased with Manny’s first day at Wild Card. Buboy and Justin [Fortune] have him in great condition for the rigors of this part of training camp.
“He’s running the Hollywood Hills like a deer. Nobody has the work ethic and conditioning like Manny. I can already see we are going to have to hold him back throughout camp.”
Roach continues by saying that he’s excited for this matchup, and that the close odds have him ready to plunk down a nice chunk of change on his fighter. He expects Thurman to come into the fight with an obvious size advantage, but also says that speed and movement are still on their side, despite Thurman being significantly younger than Pacquiao.
“Winning this fight will come down to taking chances. Manny proved in his last two fights, against Matthysse and Broner, that he has his killer instinct back.”
Pacquiao has appeared to be in great shape and working hard from what I’ve seen so far in his camp, but Pacquiao is also 40-years-old now, and there will come a time when no matter how much he wants to, he just won’t physically be able to. Will this be that fight? We won’t know for certain until fight night, but for now things are looking good for the Filipino icon.