TRAINER Freddie Roach, who celebrated his birthday Friday, was elated at just how good Manny Pacquiao looked on his second day of training at the Wild Card Gym in Los Angeles.

Speaking from the gym to www.insidesports.ph, Standard Today and Viva Sports, Roach said Pacquiao was great and looked extremely good while doing eight rounds on the punch-mitts.

Based on what he has seen so far, Roach said Pacquiao’s opponent International Boxing Organization light welterweight champion Ricky Hatton and his trainer Floyd Mayweather Sr. are good at talking.

“Let them talk. My guy is good in the ring. We’ll talk with our fists,” said Roach, whose message is clear—a knockout by the ninth round at the latest.

Roach said Pacquiao will start sparring when he gets back from the lightweight bout between his ward 22-year-old British prospect Amir Khan and ageing Mexican legend Marco Antonio Barrera. That fight is scheduled for March 14 at the Manchester Evening News arena.

“Khan should beat Barrera at this point,” said Roach, pointing out that his youth and speed should be the deciding factors in the fight.

He said he had lined up three sparring partners for Pacquiao, who will begin on March 17, giving him six weeks of “good sparring.”

Roach said during his absence, former world heavyweight champion Michael Moorer, who joined him months ago as an assistant, would handle Pacquiao, World Boxing Organization bantamweight champion Gerry Peñalosa, who battles WBO super bantamweight champion Juan Manuel Lopez on April 25 in Puerto Rico and Bernabe Concepcion, who goes after the WBO featherweight crown of Steven Luevano on the Pacquiao-Hatton undercard in Las Vegas on May 2.

He said Moorer hit it off with Pacquiao and would be a great help since “he is a southpaw who knows his stuff and Manny knows I have to leave and he is in good hands.”

Roach said conditioning expert Alex Ariza, who helped prepare Pacquiao for his spectacular 9th-round demolition of World Boxing Council lightweight champion and Oscar De La Hoya, who quit after taking a beating for eight rounds last Dec. 6 would begin working with Pacquiao on Monday. Ronnie Nathanielsz