THE world?s no.1 pound-for-pound fighter Manny Pacquiao began his first day of sparring by dropping Art Hovhannesyan at the Wild Card gym of celebrated trainer Freddie Roach in Los Angeles.

In starting off aggressively, Pacquiao showed he means business in preparing for his showdown against International Boxing Organization light welterweight champion Ricky ?The Hitman? Hatton at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas on May 2.

Conditioning expert Alex Ariza told www.insidesports.ph, Standard Today and Viva Sports that the first day of sparring was very exciting.

He said Pacquiao dropped the rugged Armenian, who has been sparring at the Wild Card gym for a while. ?Manny dropped him in the second round and then cut him in the fourth? forcing an early end to the sparring session.

Ariza said Hovhannesyan was a 147-150 pounder. ?Manny hit him with a straight left and he went down. Manny then caught him with what looked like an uppercut and that opened up a cut that ended the sparring at about two minutes into the fourth round.? The cut was about one inch on the left eyelid.

Hovhannesyan, who lives in Glendale, California, is undefeated with a ring record of 7-0-1 with 2 knockouts.

Ariza, who helped prepare Pacquiao for his ninth-round demolition of World Boxing Council lightweight champion David Diaz and the Dec. 6 battle with Oscar de la Hoya, who quit at the end of the eighth round, said Pacquiao looked very strong.

?I?ve always said that at 140 pounds, he won?t struggle to make weight, there are no diet issues and Manny is just so strong now.?

He said Pacquiao started his strength and conditioning on Monday.

?He did very well with that. He looks strong, almost like in the De la Hoya fight,? said Ariza, who noted that Pacquiao is able to push himself but since it?s early in his training, he gets a little tired. Ronnie Nathanielsz