MANILA, Philippines — Is Manny Pacquiao getting burnt out?

“No way,” said both the pound-for-pound king’s chief trainer Freddie Roach and strength and conditioning coach Alex Ariza, allaying fears that Pacquiao, who will be defending his World Boxing Organization welterweight title against Juan Manuel Marquez, might be peaking too soon and succumb to fatigue comes fight night on November 12.

“We had foreseen that as early as when we pitched camp in Baguio City in the opening phase of our build up program,” Roach said in reacting to talk that the Filipino icon might be pushing himself too hard, even starting his training program two weeks ahead of schedule.

No less than Top Rank boss man Bob Arum, Pacquiao’s promoter, has reportedly called the attention of Roach about pacing the defending champion properly.

“Slow him down,” Arum was overheard telling Roach in one of the training sessions at Wild Card Gym in downtown Hollywood, where Pacquiao has transferred his camp from Baguio almost two weeks ago.

“He (Pacquiao) wants to knock him (Marquez) out. That’s what we’re training him for. And that’s why he opted to start training ahead of schedule,” Roach told this writer even before Team Pacquiao packed up for Los Angeles.

“But that doesn’t mean we’re remiss in avoiding any unnecessary load in his training regimen. We’ve been watching everything we do as close as we can precisely to keep him at safe distance in terms of tiring him out,” Roach said. (PNA)