When a boxer who has fought most of his career under 140 pounds goes up in weight, there are two things that could be predicted of his performance in the ring – more power but less speed.

Conditioning coach Alex Ariza on Team Pacquiao, however, said that myth was clearly debunked when Manny Pacquiao had to go up in weight to fight Oscar dela Hoya last year. Pacquiao not only won the bout but dominated dela Hoya so convincingly that many sports critics dubbed the fight the upset of the year.

Ariza said Pacquiao has to trim extra pounds to make weight in his upcoming bout with Ricky Hatton without losing his speed and power. Over the past eight weeks of training, he said he is clearly seeing this and more as the Filipino champ continued to hone himself into a deadly fighting machine.

Intense drills
After Pacquiao’s usual morning road work for about half an hour Thursday morning, Ariza brought Manny to the field for some intense footwork drills.

These are drills that are very common for football players, but rarely seen for boxers. First was a series of sprints, then challenging foot-speed drills using cones and even a ladder laid out on the ground.

Akin to the Filipino game “piko”, Manny effortlessly breezed past Ariza’s challenges with no mistakes. Pacquiao admitted the challenge was tougher than it looked and said the extra training is keeping him on his toes.

“I know it is very important for my training to be this fast, and working on my footwork has been a priority for coach Alex. I need this for our defense," the pound for pound king shared.

Modesty aside, Ariza said he could not have done a better job preparing Manny for the Hatton fight.

“I have never seen Manny this strong and this fast. Everybody including Ricky has thought Manny’s main weapon was just his speed. But he will surely surprise Ricky with his power. And I even think he will be stronger than Ricky,” he said.

Rare combination
Manny proved this rare combination of awesome power and blazing speed at his sparring session at the Wild Card Gym Thursday afternoon .

Six rounds of sparring with Alisher Rajimov and David Rodela were more than enough to show off his speed and power. But Manny was again full of surprises as he also showed his ability to take a punch or two during the session.

Several times Manny went to the ropes intentionally and raised his arms while telling his sparmate to hit him with body shots. His sparmates obliged Pacquiao by giving him a knockout body punch or two, which made Manny smile.

“Are yout tickling me? Or are you massaging me?" he joked.

It was with this awesome display of speed, power, and stamina that made even members of Team Pacquiao snicker in disbelief.

“I gave him my all, everything I got! But he was smiling at me! Telling me to stop tickling him!” Rodela said.

“In that last round he must’ve thrown 60 punches at me. It was so fast I could not see them. I just closed my eyes and prayed it would end quick,” he added.

Pacquiao’s next two days at the Wild Card Gym will be without trainer Freddie Roach who has now joined Gerry Peñalosa for his title bid in Puerto Rico.

Nobody from Team Pacquiao is not the least bit worried as they train for one more week before their date with destiny on May 2.