Fortune begs Pacman to stop

LOS ANGELES — “One more (round),” Manny Pacquiao shouted Monday after another session with the mitts ended at the Wild Card Boxing Club in Hollywood.

“No more,” barked Justin Fortune, the Australian strength and conditioning coach who had to strip chief trainer Buboy Fernandez of the pads amid the threat of Pacquiao to extend the workout.

Pacquiao is less than a week away from challenging Mario Barrios in a scheduled 12-rounder at the MGM Grand on 19 July and Fortune insists the Filipino icon could be in danger of exhausting himself out.

“Right now, Manny is exactly where he should be and for someone like him and athletes of his caliber, you have to stop them from overtraining,” said Fortune, who started serving as Pacquiao’s strength coach in 2003.

Twice, Pacquiao distanced himself from Buboy Fernandez and Marvin Somodio while skipping rope so he could put in more minutes but had to be restrained.

After toying with the speedball and the double-end bag, Pacquiao turned to the heavy bag and just as he was going to attack it, Fortune placed his arms between the fighter and the punching bag to signal that enough was enough.

“What’s wrong with you?” asked the stocky Fortune, a former heavyweight fighter and powerlifter.

It was only then that the 46-year-old Hall of Famer finally decided to pull the plug and sought refuge inside his semi-cramped dressing room.

A few minutes later, he emerged from the room clad in a tight black shirt and shorts for the 300-mile long journey to Las Vegas by land.

The trip was supposed to last four to five hours but it took the Pacquiao lead car and his convoy to reach Sin City almost eight hours as a commercial vehicle caught fire near Baker, Nevada, that allowed authorities to do a major rerouting.