Pacquiao spars, shakes off rust

MANILA, Philippines - Manny Pacquiao showed a little bit of rust when he sparred six rounds yesterday at the Wild Card Gym in Los Angeles.

But nobody complained. Not Freddie Roach. Not Bob Arum.

“Manny was in high spirits and he was in good shape,” the Top Rank chief told The STAR over the telephone yesterday morning.

Arum made sure he was at the gym for Pacquiao’s fi rst sparring session less than six weeks before he climbs the ring against Juan

Manuel Marquez. It’s been nearly fi ve months now since Pacquiao, who will turn 34 in December, took a bitter, controversial loss to Timothy Bradley.

Pacquiao sparred three rounds each with regular partner Ray Beltran and a heavy newcomer, Suhrab Shidaev, and those who were

around said he struggled a bit. “He was a little rusty but Freddie is not

alarmed. Overall, Manny was in very good shape. Freddie said he might just need a couple of days to acclimatize,” said Arum. Pacquiao arrived in LA last Saturday after a couple of weeks of training in oven-hot General Santos City, and said he wanted to surprise Roach with his condition. Roach had hoped for Pacquiao to be in LA as early as three weeks ago because he said that’s what the fi ghting congressman from Sarangani had promised. But Roach really can’t complain. Right now he’s just happy that they’re off and running. “It was good for his fi rst day (of sparring),” Roach told USA Today. “He played a little bit with

Shidaev (but) he won’t make that mistake again. It’s time to get serious.” “Obviously he worked hard in General Santos,” said Arum, who added that tickets to the Dec. 8 fourth fi ght between Pacquiao and Marquez are down to just a thousand. “Defi nitely we’re going to have another sellout,” he said of the fi ght that will take place at the 16,000-seat MGM Grand Garden Arena. “There’s less than a thousand tickets left,” added Arum, just as glad that Pacquiao is right

where he’s supposed to be.