Preparation and Planning are Keys to Pacquiao’s Success
By Ed de la Vega, DDS
PhilBoxing.com
Wed, 04 Jun 2025
It has always been said that to succeed in any endeavor, careful preparation and planning must be accomplished to assure the expected results.
Such is true in the case of Manny Pacquiao, who at 46 years old is challenging a 30-year-old champion in Mario Barrios, the WBC Welterweight champion. Barrios is not only younger, but he is taller as well. He is 6 feet tall, while Pacquiao is only 5 feet 5 inches. The differences in age, height, and reach are surely factors in the fight.
Fans and boxing aficionados fear that Pacquiao, who is now far removed from his heyday decades ago, would be physically disadvantaged. The glaring disparity in size and height is causing this concern.
Team Pacquiao, acknowledging the disparity, is of course showing some concerns, but they said their man has fought bigger and taller opponents before, like Antonio Margarito and Oscar De La Hoya. He came out on top versus those guys.
To address those concerns, Team Pacquiao returned to basics. First, he arrived early in Los Angeles to resume training at Coach Freddie Roach's famed Wild Card Gym in Hollywood. Then, they rented quarters for the team in a very secured high-rise condo, thereby drastically reducing the hangers-on that can cause training distractions.
Pacquiao has been training since his arrival in LA. Gradually, the team is building up the training regimen. Today, after a successful LA press conference at the NOVO LA Live in downtown LA, Pacquiao started his first sparring session. The guy on the opposite corner of the ring is Samuel Contreras, a 5’11” 21-year-old fighter from Palmdale, California, with a 26-13-0, 1KO record.
The author fits Pacquiao's mouthguard at the Wildcard Gym in Los Angeles.
With that, the services of this writer/dentist have been sought. One of the keys in his preparation for the fight is having a professionally designed and fabricated mouthguard. Pacquiao needs to be protected not only during sparring but, more importantly, during the actual fight on July 19th at the MGM Grand Garden Arena.
Pacquiao's mouthguard.
Last week, impressions of Pacquiao’s oral structure were taken. The impressions were used to produce a hard model that will be used to design and fabricate a professional-grade mouthguard to fit his current oral condition. The design of his mouthguard for this fight differs slightly from the others we fabricated in his many previous fights. The thickness in critical areas was adjusted according to his new oral condition. A special hardened material was placed in the anterior portion, designed to absorb impact to protect the front teeth and distribute the forces of Barrios's punches that may connect.
Pacquiao, however, had the final call on the color combination of the mouthguard. He wanted a blue and red mouthguard, and that is exactly what he got.
Click here to view a list of other articles written by Ed de la Vega, DDS.
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