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Philippine Showbiz Today
October 22 - November July 8 - 21 7 , 2017 2018
General Santos City – Last Monday was supposed to be the start of the tapering off period in Manny Pacquiao ’ s preparations for his coming fight World Boxing Association welterweight championship date with Argentine title-defending Lucas “ La Maquina ” Matthysse . It didn ’ t turn out to be . A light leisurely jogging session at the Acharon Sports Complex oval had been scheduled that day , but the 39-year-old challenger opted instead to run the treacherous Maasim Hills along the highway dividing that town and this city anew to the surprise even of his handlers .
Later in the day , what was supposed another not so gruelling eight-round punching the mitts with chief trainer Buboy Fernandez , the Filipino fighting senator requested to up the load to 10 , which his boyhood friend and Australian strength and conditioning coach Justin Fortune couldn ’ t do but oblige .
Count two rounds each at the heavy bag , double end ball and speed ball , shadow boxing and sit-ups and Pacquiao ended up completing a total 25 rounds of day ’ s work , which to him was just as normal as partaking his favourite tinolang manok and tapa for lunch .
Someone who counted the sit-ups he made , including those atop the mountains after roadwork , attested he ’ done a total 1,100 on all positions for the day .
And it looks like the same scenario will remain until the day Pacquiao and his team leaves for Kuala Lumpur , site of the fight , Monday next week .
“ Well , that didn ’ t surprise me anymore . Not at all ,” Fortune quipped when asked by local media men why the sudden increase in
For Manny Pacquiao , training doesn ’ t end here
frequency . That ’ s Manny for you . That ’ s the reason he ’ s earned that phrase ‘ Manny knows ’ didn ’ t he ?”
“ Kayo naman , parang di pa ninyo kilala si Manny ,” Buboy , for his part , butted in . “ Si Manny , when he feels we ’ re still short of our target , he himself decides how to fill the vacuum . Hindi na niya hihintayin manggaling pa sa amin .”
“ Siya mismo ang mag-decide kung kailangan magdagdag kapag may kulang o magbawas kung may sobra ,” Buboy explained . “ And more often than not , tama siya .”
Buboy said while the training staff charted the entire build up program , changes occurred in the daily and weekly implementation depending on the progress of how Pacquiao responds .
“ In this coming fight , as we promised , Manny reached his peak early , kaya maganda ang nagiging takbo , kasi it allowed us the luxury of time to make adjustments ,” Buboy asserted . “ Hindi kami nagmamadali at hindi rin kami pa-relax-relax .”
“ When we leave for Kuala Lumpur Monday next week , we expect everything to be in place ,” he added . “ We can , in fact , do away with the roadwork by that time and even the sparring without losing what we would have attained .”
“ Plenty of time really to focus more on strengthening our game plan , draw strategies and tactics , etc . Sa Madali ’ t sabi , aakyat si Manny sa ibabaw ng ring na dala - dala , ang lahat ng armas na kailagan para ipanalo ang laban ,” Buboy assured .
The Pacquao-Matthysse 12- round showdown , titled “ Fight of Champions ,” will be held two weeks from now on July 15 at the Axiata Arena in Kuala Lumpur , Malaysia . ●
to name a few .
Reyes said that his player ’ s reactions were just an act of retaliation when Boomer ’ s Daniel Kickert threw an elbow to Roger Pogoy after committing an offensive foul on Christopher Goulding .
Prior to the incident , Kickert ’ s Instagram
Jogging at Sitio Seguil Maasim , Sarangani ( Photos by Wendell Alinea / MP Promotions )
Manny Pacquiao connects with a left uppercut during a mitts session with chief trainer Buboy Fernandez at the Pacman Wildcard Gym in General Santos City Monday afternoon .
Gilas Pilipinas : Chot unfazed with social media flak
The Gilas-Boomers brawl resulted in a divided nation as basketball fans took their reactions to social media on what they think transpired during the game .
Philippine national team head coach Chot Reyes is completely aware that some sided with them and some didn ’ t . But the five-time PBA coach of the year awardee zeroed in on critics .
“ I know a lot of other Filipinos , especially a lot of PBA players are saying their piece but they don ’ t know what happened ,” Reyes said .
“ They don ’ t really know what went on . That is all what we have to say .”
A few of the PBA players that were embarrassed with what transpired were former Gilas player Jimmy Alapag and SMB ’ s Chris Ross
provocative actions started even before the game started .
“ He wanted — I don ’ t know if he wanted to get into our minds , he was trying to start something using psych war against us but whatever his motive is , there was no excuse for him doing what he did during the warm-
up ,” said Reyes .
“ May nakita na ba kayo ng tinira ang kalaban sa warm up ? Sa layup line ? Hindi pa naguumpisa , pinagtitira na tayo . What do you expect us to do ?” he added .
Despite that , Reyes chooses to understand other people ’ s perception but he is also requesting to try to understand theirs .
“ I understand the disappointment . I understand that they are embarrassed but again , you don ’ t know what happened . You have to be in the team circle to really understand what went down .”
Regardless of what happened , Gilas Pilipinas advances to the second phase of the FIBA World Qualifiers and is scheduled to face Iran on September 13th . ●
- Ernest Hernandez , MB Sports