Manny Pacquiao is slowly metamorphosing into the madman that he usually is when training at the Wild Card Boxing Club in Hollywood.

“I just don’t feel like stopping when I get into training mode,” Pacquiao said Saturday night (Sunday morning in Manila) while being given a massage at his two-bedroom apartment at The Palazzo in Los Angeles.

It is customary that Pacquiao, who gets a crack at David Diaz’s World Boxing Council (WBC) lightweight (135 lbs) crown on June 28 in Las Vegas, gets a massage after a sparring session.

Pacquiao revealed he went through eight rounds with three sparmates several hours earlier.

“I keep on insisting to get additional rounds whenever I spar that’s why I had eight (rounds) today,” said Pacquiao, who had gone five rounds in his first sparring session last Tuesday and seven rounds on Thursday.

Pacquiao, who is the WBC super-featherweight (130 lbs) titlist, added he doesn’t feel like rushing things to make up for his seemingly-late arrival at the doorsteps of Freddie Roach’s famed sweat shop on Vine Street.

“I just felt that I could go right at it since I am just coming off a fight not too long ago,” said Pacquiao, who went 12 rounds with Juan Manuel Marquez last March 15.

“So far, I feel very good and I feel I am right on target,” added the Filipino southpaw, the heavy favorite in the scheduled 12-rounder that takes place before an expected sellout crowd at Mandalay Bay.

This coming week, Pacquiao will further hike his number of sparring rounds and one of the sparring sessions will be held in San Francisco on Saturday where his legion of fans eagerly await his arrival for a one-day promotional tour-cum-workout.

As Pacquiao enters the crucial phase of his preparation, there would also be changes in his weight.

These days, Pacquiao goes around 143 to 144 lbs and by the end of this week, his target is to get down to 139 to 140 lbs.

Pacquiao will be making his lightweight debut as he also aims to become the first Filipino to win a version of the world lightweight championship.

In winning the WBC super-feather diadem from Marquez, Pacquiao became the first fighter from Asia to capture three world titles in three different weight classes.

The closest any other fighter from Asia achieved such a feat was Japanese Masahiko “Fighting” Harada, who was denied of winning the world feather title by Australian Johnny Famechon in the late 1960s after winning the world fly and bantam championships.