by Nick Giongco
Notorious for being a slow-starter, Adrien Broner will find himself dealing with a fast and furious Manny Pacquiao in their world welterweight title fight in January 2019.
“He’s a slow-starter, gets warmed up after three or four rounds so we are going to jump on him pretty fast,” Justin Fortune, Pacquiao’s Australian conditioning coach said during a morning run by the Filipino star in Los Angeles.
Broner, winner of four world titles in as many weight classes, also has to contend with some weighty issue.
During the two-city press tour in New York City and Los Angeles, Pacquiao took note of Broner’s physique, drawing laughter from those who attended the media gigs.
Fortune, however, swears that Broner is someone not to be taken for granted.
“He’s dangerous and it’s a dangerous fight,” added Fortune, who will arrive in Manila from Los Angeles on Sunday morning.
Pacquiao will train in Manila for more than two weeks and spend the final ten days in General Santos City before heading back to the US for the final push.
The Wild Card Boxing Club will be the venue of Pacquiao’s US training camp although Fortune and Buboy Fernandez, who was elevated to the role of chief trainer a few months ago, are heavily against it.
But Pacquiao vows to straighten things out so they could all work in peace as he makes the first defense of the World Boxing Association welter crown he had won by destroying Argentina’s Lucas Matthysse in Malaysia.
