"About eighty percent, eighty-five percent. I think we still have two and half weks to go...with the sparring partners, the timing is still off a little bit," stated world-class trainer Freddie Roach as he gave an update to GMANews.tv on Manny Pacquiao's training less than 4 weeks away from his highly-anticipated November 14th clash with Miguel Cotto. Due to the threat of a typhoon expected to hit the Philippines as early as Tuesday, Pacquiao was forced to move his training camp from Baguio City to a gym in Mandaluyong owned by former champion Gerry Peñalosa.
Despite the outside distractions and the need to uproot his training camp, Pacquiao has continued to spar intensely with the likes of highly-touted Urbano Antillon (26-1, 19 KOs), undefeated jr. middleweight prospect Shawn Porter (10-0, 8 KOs) and former two-time lightweight champion Jose Luis Castillo (60-9-1, 52 KOs). By all accounts, the Filipino superstar has handled himself well and is looking sharp and strong in sparring. According to reports, he dropped the younger, but bigger Porter twice and battered and bloodied the older Castillo .
As the fight draws closer, Roach, who is extremely pleased with the results thus far in training, is growing more confident in Pacquiao's chances in scoring a knockout victory over WBO welterweight champion Cotto. "Cotto is a tough guy. He's resilient, of course, but I think we'll bust him up. My favorite number is nine and that's what I'm going with," Roach added with a smile when asked for his prediction on the outcome of the bout.
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