Pacquiao does 6 rounds of sparring

Manny Pacquiao capped his first week of sparring by doing six rounds yesterday against a Filipino boxer with a ring record of 24-21-1 and a Greek-Australian at the Wild Card Gym in General Santos City.

Pacquiao did three rounds with Arnel Tinampay, a 34-year-old journeyman from Bohol, and another three with George Kambosos Jr.

“Great sparring today,” said David Sisson, a member of Pacquiao’s inner circle.

Pacquiao is gearing up for his July 15 title clash with WBA welterweight champion Lucas Matthysse of Argentina.

Tinampay, a welterweight, has 21 defeats but has never been knocked out. He has lost five of his last seven fights in Japan, Australia, Bangkok, South Korea and the Philippines. He was brought in to mimic Matthysse. Pacquiao marked the first day of sparring last Tuesday, the first time he had traded punches with anyone inside the ring since July last year when he lost to Jeff Horn in Brisbane.

Then last Thursday, he resumed sparring, under the supervision of new head trainer Buboy Fernandez and strength coach Justin Fortune.

The title fight will take place at the Axiata Arena in Kuala Lumpur, which had never staged a boxing match of this magnitude since Muhammad Ali borught his class act to the Malaysian capital in 1975.

Matthysse is deep in training somewhere in California.