EIGHT-DIVISION world champion Manny Pacquiao skipped training for the second day in a row, but went jogging at Pan Pacific Park yesterday morning.
He was supposed to spar, but while Pacquiao was in the Wild Card Gym of trainer Freddie Roach, the US Anti Doping Agency technicians showed up and extracted four vials of blood as part of the random drug tests that both he and Floyd Mayweather Jr. are being subjected to.
Top Rank promoter Bob Arum said Pacquiao didn’t want to keep the USADA technicians waiting until he finished training and decided to ask them to get his blood and urine samples before his training.
“Since it took a while to get it done, Freddie (Roach) asked Manny to take off,” said Arum, who told the Standard/boxingmirror.com, he was informed that Mayweather Jr. was “getting hit a lot by his sparring partners and couldn’t spar for a few days because his lip was cut and they had to manufacture a special headgear that also covered his lips because every time Floyd got hit, it bled.”
Top Rank publicist Fred Sternberg said that after the USADA people took Pacquiao’s blood and urine, “he didn’t seem like he wanted to train,” but emphasized there is nothing to worry about because “he was faster than anybody” during his morning run and “looks great and is in terrific shape.”
Former NBA superstar Karl Malone of the Utah Jazz also paid Pacquiao a visit at the gym and wished him all the best in his May 2 showdown against Floyd Mayweather Jr.
Paquiao’s adviser Michael Koncz told mediamen: “No interviews at this time please.”
Pacquiao himself and trainer Roach also declined to give interviews to Filipino journalists, who waited at the gym and later outside the Filipino’s home.