RICK STAHELI WARNS PACQUIAO TO STAY AWAY FROM CRAWFORD
By Ronnie Nathanielsz
PhilBoxing.com
Tue, 26 Jul 2016
American trainer Rick Staheli who handled Manny Pacquiao when he won his first world title ? the World Boxing Council flyweight crown with a spectacular 8th round knockout of Thai hero Chatchai Sasakul in December 1998, has warned Pacquiao to ?stay away from (Terrence) Crawford? who last weekend dominated Viktor Postol to win a twelve round unanimous decision after dropping Postol, who is trained by Freddie Roach, twice in the 5th round.
Staheli told The Standard he?d like to see Pacquiao, the eight division world champion fight one of Al Haymon?s guys and would ?love to see Manny fight Danny Garcia since Adrian Broner has priced himself out of a fight. It will be something different.?
He said that should Pacquiao face Crawford, the reigning WBO/WBC light welterweight champion with an unbeaten record of 29-0 with 20 knockouts, he expects Crawford ?to move like he did against Postol so it's not going to be easy for anybody to go out there and beat this guy. Crawford is going to be tough to beat.?
Hall of Fame trainer Freddie Roach who trains both Pacquiao and Postol said after Crawford whipped Postol, ?His speed was unbelievable. He was just too fast. He surprised me with his talent.?
However, Staheli shared our view that ?in the end I have a sneaking suspicion that (Top Rank promoter) Bob Arum will pick Jessie Vargas? the reigning WBO/WBA welterweight champion with a record of 27-1 with 10 knockouts.
He noted, ?there?s a title there. Bob keeps it in-house. Vargas wants the pay day but he won?t beat Manny.?
In his last fight on March 5, Vargas scored a 9th round TKO over Sadam Ali after losing to Timothy ?Desert Storm? Bradley by a twelve round unanimous decision on June 27, 2015.
On the other hand Pacquiao scored a lopsided 116-110 decision on the scorecards of all three judges when he faced Bradley for the third time last April 29 to win the WBO welterweight Interim title.
Click here to view a list of other articles written by Ronnie Nathanielsz.
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