SULAIMAN SAYS BARRERA WILL RUN
By Ronnie Nathanielsz
PhilBoxing.com
Wed, 05 Sep 2007
WBC president Jose Sulaiman says he believes legendary Mexican Marco Antonio Barrera will run when he meets Filipino idol Manny Pacquiao in an eagerly awaited rematch at the Mandalay Bay Resort Hotel & Casino on October 6.
In an overseas telephone conversation with Viva Sports/Manila Standard Today from his home in Mexico City, the esteemed WBC president said “although Barrera is doing very well and definitely training very hard, Pacquiao is much stronger than him.”
Sulaiman said his opinion was that Barrera “is gonna run and try to box” the Filipino southpaw to have any chance of avenging his demolition in eleven rounds at the Alamadome in San Antonio, Texas in November 2003.
The WBC president expressed his concern over the illness of Pacquiao last weekend and said “I hope it was not too much.” When reassured by us that we were at Pacquiao’s training camp and covered his preparation for a Viva Sports pre-fight TV special and he was doing fine, Don Jose was relieved saying “that’s very good, very good.”
Pacquiao’s Filipino trainer Restituto “Buboy” Fernandez told us Wednesday morning that Pacquiao didn’t push himself too hard and ran for some 21 minutes along the flatland at the IT Park opposite the Waterfront Hotel where Team Pacquiao is billeted. The assistant to the celebrated Freddie Roach said it was a “speed run” and Pacquiao was “doing well.”
Fernandez said Pacquiao was set to spar in the afternoon at the RWS Gym of close friend and confidant Rex “Wakee” Salud against Mexican’s Raymund Beltran and David Rodela and Filipinos Arnel Tinampay and Aaron Melgarejo.
Barrera who entered his fifth week of training at a high altitude training camp in Guadalajara told Eastside boxing he was “not just fighting for personal revenge. I am fighting for my country and my fellow Mexican fighters who have fallen victim to Pacquiao. I am training harder that I ever have . I want to beat Manny so badly I can taste it. This goes beyond being personal. For me this fight is about restoring national pride.”
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