Aside from his routine morning exercises which include jogging and shadow boxing in the streets of Makati and in places near the senate offices in the Manila Bay area, Pacquiao has also started gym workouts at the Elorde Gym located at the Mall of Asia Complex.
Pacquiao isn’t taking Vargas for granted despite claims that the 27-year-old Mexican-American would be an easy fight for him based on his career record.
While Vargas has lost only once in his pro career, he hasn’t been tested against tough opponents except in his fights against former Pacquiao foe Timothy Bradley and previously against Antonio de Marco and Sadam Ali.
But Pacquiao knows that Vargas is capable of pulling off the upset as he almost did when he buckled Bradley’s knees in the last round of their last title fight. Vargas thought he won via TKO as the referee stopped the fight a few seconds before the final bell. It turned out that the referee mistakenly signaled the end of the fight after hearing the 10 seconds warning with about seven more seconds left in the final round.
Vargas is confident he will beat Pacquiao as he talked about his strategy come fight night with the aim of scoring a knockout. Vargas has a low KO rating and going for an early KO win would be quite difficult for him to achieve.
Pacquiao is presently attending senate sessions and has been actively participating in the deliberations on the current issues being tackled by the senate including among others, the senate inquiry on the reported extra-judicial killings being perpetuated allegedly by some members of the police force.
The neophyte senator is likewise preoccupied in his new designation as the chairman of the sports committee of the senate