GODSPEED BOBBY PACQUIAO
By Ed de la Vega, DDS
PhilBoxing.com
Tue, 18 Nov 2008
Los Angeles, CA: While most boxing fans in the Philippines, in Southern California and places similar are engrossed with the fast approaching ?Dream Match? between the Filipino boxing icon, Manny Pacquiao and the ex-multi-division boxing champ, Oscar de la Hoya, a quiet un-assuming young boxer toils almost un-noticed in Hollywood.
Perhaps if he does not carry the same surname as his older brother Manny, Bobby Pacquiao will not be noticed at all. He would just be ?one of the guys? that train at the famed gym of Freddie Roach.
But as fate has it, he too is a Pacquiao.
Thus, with the name and the connection he somehow lands fights from all over the place. He got fights at Las Vegas, New York and now even at San Jose, California.
Bobby Pacquiao is scheduled to headline the American Metal and Iron Fight Night at the Tank at the HP Pavilion right smack in the midst of the Silicon Valley, the ?high-tech? capital of the California. The fight will be on Thursday, November 20th.
Pacquiao will be facing Robert Frankle (25-9-1) a boxer from Denver, Colorado. Denver is better known as a ?snow country? rather that a place where boxing reign supreme. But that does not mean boxers from that area are ?push over?.
Frankle is a natural light welter weight, a concern worth checking. And, he is a fairly decent boxer. However, BoxRec shows that he has not fought anyone of note.
Pacquiao at best is a lightweight. Therefore, at fight night, although the fight contract weight is 135 lbs., Pacquiao may conceivably be out-weighed by Frankle.
But being outweighed is almost now a non-issue for the Pacquiao brothers.
Manny Pacquiao may come in lighter than Oscar de la Hoya on December 6th. So even if Frankle will outweigh Bobby, perhaps it does not really matter that much.
?Mas mabigat siya sa akin, Doc pero kaya ko naman siguro. Maganda ang training ko ngayon kaya kompiyansa ako?, Bobby told this writer. (He is heavier but I think I can handle it. I had a good training camp so I am confident)
Bobby leaves for San Jose Tuesday morning. He will be travelling with his wife Lorelie who just arrived from the Philippines to be at ringside to support her husband, and a very small entourage. He will not have a large decorated bus like the one leased by Bob Arum for the Manny Pacquiao group next month as they travel from Los Angeles to Las Vegas.
But it does not really matter. Bobby, all these years had always been behind the shadow of his more famous brother. But he did well in spite of that. Hopefully someday, he will emerge from it and be his own man. The fight will Frankle may well be the start.
Pacquiao will stay over after his fight to see his big brother fight the Golden Boy, Oscar de la Hoya next month. After that, he will be traveling back home to continue training for a possible fight early next year to defend his WBO Asia Pacific Lightweight title, a diadem he won from Decho Bankluaygym last August at the Cebu Waterfront Hotel.
With that, we wish Bobby all the best on his coming fights, notably the one on Thursday. Witnessing how hard he trained for this fightin the past several weeks, we are confident he will do well.
God speed, Bobby Pacquiao!
Click here to view a list of other articles written by Ed de la Vega, DDS.
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