PACQUIAO IN ALMOST PERFECT CONDITION
By Ronnie Nathanielsz
PhilBoxing.com
Tue, 16 Feb 2010
“Fighter of the Decade” and pound-for-pound king Manny Pacquiao is in almost perfect condition for his showdown with tough Joshua Clottey of Ghana in “The Event” at the $1.2 billion Dallas Cowboys stadium on March 13.
Pacquiao told Dyan Castillejo and this reporter during the “Pinoy Power III/Latin Fury 13” fight coverage of ABS-CBN at the Las Vegas Hilton “I got into good condition right away because there wasn’t a long break” after his November battle with Miguel Cotto whom he stopped in the 12th round to win the WBO welterweight title.
Pacquiao said he started training in January and was in shape right away. After playing basketball regularly in the Philippines in order to stay in good physical condition, Pacquiao flew to Los Angeles to begin training under Freddie Roach at Roach’s Wild Card Gym.
Roach who worked the corner of former two division world champion Gerry Penalosa in a controversial split decision loss to another former champion Eric Morel of Puerto Rico told us that he often has to hold Pacquiao back to prevent him from reaching his peak too early.
Pacquiao was with the TV panel when previously undefeated Ciso “Kid Terrible”Morales got knocked out in the very first round by WBO bantamweight champion Fernando “Cochulito” Montiel.
When informed by Castillejo that Morales had to lose 12 pounds in six days in order to make the bantamweight limit Pacquiao noted that a fighter “isn’t strong and durable if he reduces weight. His stomach isn’t hardy.”
Pacquiao who himself suffered the second knockout of his career when he was totally dehydrated and weak after reducing but still failing to make the flyweight limit in his WBC title defense against Medgoen Singsuart in Thailand where he was knocked out in the third round said “that’s why I was telling the boxers no matter how hard you workout with your hands, you need to work well on your body.”
He said that at times when fighters end their workouts ”they are lazy to do sit-ups, work on their abs and then they have a hard time in a fight.” Pacquiao stressed how important it is to strengthen a fighter’s midsection noting that “?t’s a much bigger target than a boxer’s face.”
Pacquiao also told us that he was convinced that veteran southpaw Gerry Penalosa won his fight against Eric Morel although the judges had Morel the winner by a split decision. Pacquiao said that in his eyes Penalosa won by seven rounds to five in the WBO bantamweight interim title fight.
Pacquiao who posed for photographers with promoter Bob Arum and newly crowned WBO featherweight champion Juan Manuel “Juanma” Lopez said he was pleased with Bernabe Concepcion’s performance in his unanimous ten round decision victory over tough Mario Santiago whom Concepcion dropped in the sixth round en route to victory.
Pacquiao who handles Concepcion along with his adviser Michael Koncz said that Concepcion is lined up to fight Lopez perhaps sometime in June and he “will be there every day to help train him “(Concepcion) for the fight” against Lopez.
Pacquiao noted that Concepcion still has a lot to work on because his timing was a little off and the coordination of his hands was off.”
Click here to view a list of other articles written by Ronnie Nathanielsz.
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