Training picks up pace

MANILA, Philippines - Manny Pacquiao trained behind closed doors yesterday, and it’s a good sign that preparations for his Nov. 14 showdown with WBO welterweight champion Miguel Cotto have shifted to high gear in Baguio City.

For the first time since the boxing icon pitched camp in the country’s summer capital, where he would train for four to five weeks, the doors to the Shape Up Gym were closed even to Baguio-based mediamen.

Pacquiao started working out in Baguio last Monday, and the following day his chief trainer, Freddie Roach, and conditioning coach, Alex Ariza, flew in from Los Angeles to supervise the preparations.

Mike Koncz, the boxer’s Canadian adviser, said the doors to the gym will be opened to the media on Thursday when Pacquiao holds a media day. His promoter, Bob Arum of Top Rank, will be there on that day.

Even when he trains at the Wild Card Gym in Los Angeles, Pacquiao trains behind closed doors. But it was for the Ricky Hatton fight last May when stricter measures were put in place upon the orders of Roach.

Roach said he noticed that Pacquiao was “working out for the fans” and the three-time Trainer of the Year even ordered that Saturdays, normally reserved for the fans, be “off-limits” to those outside of Team Pacquiao.

Training behind closed doors gives Pacquiao and Roach more time to themselves as they begin mapping out the strategies and fightplan to be used on the ring against the wide-bodied, heavy-handed Cotto.

Sparring should begin on Tuesday with just a couple of rounds. The sparring partners, Shawn Porter and Urbano Antillon, will fly in on Sunday. Sparring will be held Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays.

Meanwhile, reigning WBA welterweight champion Shane Mosley continued to air his thoughts thousands of miles away, this time saying that while he sees the fight going either way, Cotto may have the advantage.

“Cotto can very well beat down Manny Pacquiao because Pacquiao will be smaller than Cotto,” said Mosley who tried to compare the coming fight to the one between Floyd Mayweather Jr. and Juan Manuel Marquez last Sunday.

Mayweather weighed in two pounds heavier than the agreed weight of 146 lb and paid a fine of $600,000. But he climbed the ring the following day so much bigger than Marquez, so much bigger than everyone had anticipated.

The result was a mismatch, and Roach commented that Mayweather defeated “the best lightweight (135 lb) out there.”

Mosley is still looking for the big fight since he took the crown away from Antonio Margarito, and he’s looking at Mayweather, Pacquiao or even Cotto as his next opponent.