Pacquiao training in full tilt as Castillo sparring begins!

It’s full speed ahead for Manny Pacquiao in his Philippines based training camp. Two weeks into the sparring phase of training, the pound-for-pound king has over 31 rounds under his belt. Thus far Pacquiao has been sparring with highly regarded Mexican upstart Urbano Antillon and undefeated junior middleweight prospect Shawn Porter. Things will no doubt intensify this week as Pacquiao is set to begin sparring with former world champion Jose Luis Castillo. Castillo is now on location in Baguio City and he will engage Pacquiao for the first time Tuesday when the two are set to spar for several rounds.

Shawn Porter and Urbano Antillon have been giving Pacquiao some tough work, as head trainer Freddie Roach has an open offer of $1000 cash to anyone who can drop ‘The Pacman’ in their sparring sessions. So far the task has proved to be a daunting one.

“He dominated both guys last week,” Roach told Filipino media outlet Philstar.com after putting Pacquiao through his paces in the swimming pool (a substitution for road work last week as the weather in Baguio City continues to be tumultuous).

With the arrival of Castillo, Roach expects Pacquiao to benefit from being hit by a big strong world class opponent.

“I believe he is weighing around 160 right now,” Roach said of Castillo. “According to him, he has a fight scheduled next month, so he must be in good shape.”

With over thirty rounds of sparring under their belt, Roach intends to have Pacquiao up to 150 rounds by the end of their sparring phase of training.

Pacquiao opened camp in the secluded confines of Baguio City in late September as American tax laws prevented the Filipino champion from operating for too many accumulative days on US soil. As a result, Pacquiao decided to begin training in the boxing crazed Philippines before moving his camp to Los Angeles on Oct. 24. That puts him back in the Pacific time zone three weeks prior to his November 14 super fight with Miguel Cotto.

Pacquiao’s road work had been going well in the high altitude surroundings north of Manila, but devastating storms have hampered his outdoor training and have wreaked havoc on the Philippines as a whole.

A deadly Typhoon and several storms have triggered dozens of landslides and killed nearly 500 people nation wide. Despite being hard at work for the biggest fight of his life, Pacquiao halted his camp in early October to distribute food and supplies to the hundreds of people who have been affected by the country’s worst flooding in 40 years.

The distractions aren’t anything new Pacquiao, who’s fame in his home country is unparalleled around the world. Weather it’s politics, entertainment, family, or natural disaster… the hardest working man in boxing keeps moving forward as his biggest fight always seems to lay right around the corner. This time it comes in the form of Miguel Cotto on Nov. 14, and based on his intense training regime, it is not something Pacquiao is taking lightly.

Source: http://fightfan.com/2009/10/pacquiao-training-in-full-tilt-as-castillo-sparring-begins/