Philippine Asian News Today Vol 19 No 10 | Page 29

May 16 - 31, 2017
PHILIPPINE ASIAN NEWS TODAY
29
Pacquiao  vs. Horn: July 2 in Brisbane, Australia
Pacquiao in fighting form
Barely a week of work-
ing under chief trainer
Freddie Roach and still a
month left before battling
Australian challenger Jeff
Horn, World Boxing Or-
ganization
welterweight
champion Manny Pacquiao
looks to have done more
than 50 per cent of his tar-
get to successfully keep the
147-pound title within this
shore.          
After dancing for eight
rounds Tuesday against
three sparring partners,
including
newly-arrived
Mexican super-lightweight
Adrian Young, Roach pro-
claimed his prized student
of 16 years has erased all
doubts expressed by de-
tractors on the eight-divi-
sion belt-owner’s capability
to reach fighting form
Pacquiao  crosses path
with Horn July 2 at Bris-
bane’s  55,000-seat Sun-
corp Asena in Queensland
with his crown at stake.       
“I’m not saying Man-
ny ‘s already sharp as we
want him to on the day of
the fight, but what I can
say is that we still have one
month to go  to prepare,”
Roach told this writer after
another routine three-hour
session at the Elorde sweat
shop inside the Mall of Asia
commercial complex.
“We’’ll be in that very
ideal situation from today
until we close the camp
before the fight,” the 57-
year-old boxing guru, who
arrived in Manila last May
22 with conditioning coach
Justin Fortune to supervise
the training chores with
Filipino assistants Buboy
Fernandez, Nonoy Neri and
Roer “Haplas” Fernandez,
asserted.
The eight-round spar-
ring – two with local Ori-
ent Pacific campaigner
Leopoldo Doronio, three
SPECTATOR
Continued from PAGE 26
has no rules on knockout.
 If someone from Gi-
las had crowed, beaten his
chest, after that 107-point
zarzuela, he ought to be
shot EJK-style.
 To avoid that gobbledy-
gook, why don’t we amend
the basketball rule book and
make a team ahead by 50
points at the half the winner
by knockout?
 In every sport, enter-
tainment is the main fare.
 The reason we watch
games is to have fun.
Thrilled by action uncom-
monly seen in man. That’s
how it is since sports was
born.
 In the ongoing SEABA
cagefest, the element of fun
is absent.  Absolutely.
 Thus, Gilas winning it
would be a mere statistic in
the Fiba books.  Absolutely
unex