Manny wants more punishment

LOS ANGELES — He was already in the tail-end of his training session Friday when Manny Pacquiao looked around wondering where conditioning coach Justin Fortune was.

“Justin, Justin,” Pacquiao muttered after his abs and leg workout at the Wild Card Boxing Club eight days before he challenges Mario Barrios for the World Boxing Council welterweight crown on 19 July at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas.

Fortune, upon hearing his name, walked back into the ring and approached Pacquiao.

Apparently, the Filipino eight-division legend wanted Fortune to do the sticks training, the painful striking of the arms, stomach and rib cage to boost pain tolerance.

“No, no. Not today,” someone from his battery of trainers told Pacquiao.

“You’ll have your last sparring session tomorrow.”

Pacquiao had championed its value the day before, telling Tokyo Olympics bronze medalist Eumir Marcial and one of the world’s leading super-bantamweights Carl Jammes Martin, that its effect was most sought-after.

“It helps maximize your tolerance to pain,” Pacquiao said in between breaks during his rigorous exercises.

“Even if you’re getting hit in the arms, you don’t feel them. It kind of makes you deflect the pain of blows that land on your body.”

This training technique was introduced to Pacquiao more than two decades ago when the recently-enshrined Hall of Famer was getting ready to face Marco Antonio Barrera in San Antonio, Texas.

Pacquiao would go on to maul Barrera from pillar to post with the win becoming one of his landmark victories.

Next week, Pacquiao will put it to another stern test when he battles the young Barrios confident that his opponent’s best blows would have no effect on him.