Ariza: Pacman to put foe away in 3 rounds

At the start of training camp, Manny Pacquiao’s conditioning expert Alex Ariza said that while the Filipino champ was in great shape, he didn’t agree with trainer Freddie Roach’s prediction that the fight against Ricky Hatton would end in three rounds.

But yesterday, Ariza changed his mind.

Ariza said: “I’ll be honest with you. In the past, I had my reservations about the whole third-round knockout thing, but after what I saw today, I don’t doubt it now. It won’t surprise me at all. In fact, it will surprise me if it went past that [three rounds].”

Ariza said Pacquiao sparred 12 rounds Thursday in Los Angeles (Friday in Manila) and looked great.

He said Pacquiao was in great shape over 12 rounds of sparring. He started off by doing five rounds with undefeated lightweight Urbano Antillon (25-0, 14 KOs), then went four rounds with Raymond Serrano and finally three rounds with lightweight David Rodela (12-1, 6 KOs).

“The three sparring partners went non-stop and should be given a lot of credit for pushing Manny. That’s such a big reason why he’s in such great shape. They came in 100 percent and put in their best performance. Everybody looked good and Manny looked awesome.”