Pacquiao, who mentored his team to back-to-back wins against Purefoods Hotshots and Talk N Text, did not play to avoid possible injury as he gears up for his intensive eight-week training camp at the Wild Card Gym in Hollywood, California for his upcoming fight against Floyd Mayweather.
Buboy Fernandez, Pacquiao’s boyhood friend and assistant trainer will supervise the first week of training while waiting for Pacquiao’s head trainer Freddie Roach, who is in Macau, China for Zou Shiming‘s first title fight.
As Shiming’s trainer, Roach has guided the Chinese Olympic gold medalist to six straight victories since turning pro in 2013. The fight will take place on March 8 at the Venetian Resort & Casino in Macau. At stake is the IBF flyweight title.
After the fight, Roach will join Pacquiao at his own Wild Card Gym along with Strength and Conditioning Coach Justin Fortune to map out their strategy for the May 2 fight.
Roach told Dan Rafael of ESPN in a phone interview that Pacquiao will fly to LA earlier than his previous schedule of March 8.
“Manny called me and said it’s been so crazy in the Philippines that he is going to come over here early and probably start at Wild Card on March 2,” Roach told ESPN.com on Thursday. “Having him early is really nice for me. We’ll have Justin Fortune doing strength work with him, and then we’ll begin the boxing part and start sparring,” he added.
While Roach is in Macau for Shiming’s fight, his training assistant Marvin Somodio, still with Shiming in Macau, will fly to LA to supervise Pacquiao’s training.