SPORTS ROUNDUP 4: PACQUIAO AND MATTHYSSE ON FINAL PREPARATIONS
By Maloney L. Samaco
PhilBoxing.com
Mon, 09 Jul 2018
Joel Diaz, Lucas Matthysse's head trainer, has worked to prepare his fighter for Pacquiao's southpaw punches. ?We?ve been focused on the southpaw stance. Even giving him southpaw sparring partners. Myself and Matthysse?s brother-in-law Mario Narvaez are both southpaws and we?ve been hitting the mitts against him ahead of this fight against Pacquiao,? Diaz said over Boxing Scene.
The biggest problem facing them, says Diaz, is the considerable time difference. ?We?re trying to program him to train at the time he is fighting (about 11:30am). He?s been training in California really well and I want him to focus on the fight it?s a big fight,? Diaz said.
Manny Pacquiao devoted his last two days in training camp to sharpen up his defense. "I'm very satisfied with the result of our training, our conditioning, we're all satisfied with our good performance and what we did in training. We put in a lot of effort.... we did more combinations, head movement, just building up what we've always done," Pacquiao told GMA News.
Pacquiao was asked about realizing his dream of having his last fight in the Philippines, he said, "Yes, it's possible to get it here, let's just say that's the plan." Pacquiao will have his last training on Monday, then fly to Kuala Lumpur for the Matthysse match.
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Jamal Woods, 28-years-old, withdrew from a fight with the 53-year-old Oliver McCall on Saturday aborting a contest scheduled against the former WBC heavyweight champion. McCall once defeated Lennox Lewis and was considered as one of the top heavyweights in the 1990's. McCall surprisingly decided to fight back in the boxing ring in his 50's.
Nicknamed "The Atomic Bull," McCall last fought in 2014 when he retired at age 49 after a rematch defeat to Marcin Rekowski. But McCall agreed to return to the ring on the "Battle of the Bay III" card in Texas this Saturday.
McCall has a 57-14 record in the pro ranks, lost seven since retiring from boxing for the first time in 2001 after a KO win on Henry Akinwande. He got five losses in the last eight years.
He won over Lennox Lewis by second round TKO and quit fighting during their rematch, McCall has clashed with Frank Bruno, James "Buster" Douglas and Larry Holmes during a 33-year career. Woods, with a pro record of 17-42-7, did not push through with the McCall fight.
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The 2018 Wimbledon Championships is only the third round but there is only one of the top 10 seeds left in the women's tournament. This is a rare incident in the Open era since professional tennis began in 1968 where until today at least four of the top 10 seeds always entered the fourth round.
There were already 14 women's and 16 men's seeded players eliminated by the end of the second round. In the men's category, 16 seeded players advanced to the third round, and this is the lowest number since 2003 when there were 15 who qualified.
Defending champion Swiss Roger Federer faces French 22nd seed Adrian Mannarino while two-time champion Spanish Rafael Nadal plays Czech Jiri Vesely. Seven-time winner Serena Williams, the favorite for the women's title, plays Russian Evgeniya Rodina on Monday. Seventh seed Czech Karolina Pliskova, the only remaining women's top 10 seed, plays world number 20 Kiki Bertens of Netherlands.
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In the ongoing FIFA World Cup 2018, there were 60 matches already played with 157 goals scored at an average of 2.62 per match. Total attendance registered is 2,747,054 or 45,784 per match. The top scorer so far is Harry Kane of England with six goals. Romelu Lukaku of Belgium, Cristiano Ronaldo of Portugal and Denis Cheryshev of Russia has four goals each.
Click here to view a list of other articles written by Maloney L. Samaco.
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