by Nick Giongco
While Manny Pacquiao was engrossed in the election fever, Keith Thurman was already immersed in training neat Tampa bay in Florida.
Thurman, who battles Pacquiao in a welterweight war on July 20 at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, insists that he won’t blame anybody but him if he loses to the Filipino eight-division champion.
“I can’t say, ‘Oh man, I didn’t have enough time to train,” the undefeated Thurman told the Bulletin during a chat recently. “So we started (training much earlier).”
Thurman reveals that even before he went on a dizzying two-city, cross-country press tour that brought him and Pacquiao to New York City and Los Angeles last week, the 30-year-old puncher had been sweating it out.
“Up until he travels to Las Vegas during fight week, Thurman will train exclusively in St. Petersburg in sunny Florida, where the weather is perfect for training.
“I love beaches and Florida weather. At the end of the day, at this time of the year is one my favorite times to be in training camp because the sun is there, the heat is there. It’s easy to sweat.”
When he attended the promotional tour, Thurman admitted to being a bit overweight but swears that shedding off excess poundage will be easy owing to the tropical climate that Florida presents.
Pacquiao, meanwhile, is also on training mode in Manila.
Just hours after arriving from the US last Friday, Pacquiao showed up in the gym, fulfilling his promise to a reporter who tailed him during the three-night, four-day tour that logged a total of 18,300 miles.
