ARIZA BELIEVES A MARGARITO FIGHT WOULD BE BEST FOR PACQUIAO
By Ronnie Nathanielsz
PhilBoxing.com
Fri, 23 Jul 2010
The conditioning expert who contributed his share alongside for time ?Trainer of the Year? award winner Freddie Roach in honing pound-for-pound king and ?Fighter of the Decade? Manny Pacquiao into a devastating fighter says he believes a fight against Antonio Margarito would be better for Pacquiao at this stage rather than a rematch with WBO light middleweight champion Miguel Cotto.
Ariza said Pacquiao?s 12th round stoppage of Cotto last December at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, Nevada ?is still too fresh? even as he believes that even if Cotto is trained by the highly respected Emmanuel Steward, Pacquiao will beat Cotto handily.
Ariza noted that many people are not too excited about a Cotto rematch at this point which is also the view shared by Pacquiao?s adviser Michal Koncz who told us he thinks Cotto who won the WBO 154 pound title from champion Yuri Foreman who re-injured his right knee and hobbled around the ring should have an impressive win in his next fight before they consider a Cotto rematch for Pacquiao.
Koncz and Top Rank promoter Bob Arum were scheduled to visit Monterrey, Mexico on Friday, Manila Time, to check out the possibilities of staging a Pacquiao-Margarito fight there, since they had received an attractive proposal for such a battle for the vacant WBC light middleweight title which would give Pacquiao a crack at winning an unprecedented eighth world crown which will reinforce his current record of seven world titles in seven different weight divisions.
Meantime, well-known WBC ring physician Dr. Allan Recto sent us a collection of photographs of Monterrey after the devastation and floods caused by Hurricane Alex and said ?I seriously doubt that it will be the ideal location for PacMan's next fight in November 2010. I live in Laredo, Texas (U.S.-Mexican border town) which is 2 1/2 hrs. by car (150 miles) away from Monterrey, Mexico and our city had flood areas when the Rio Grande river overflowed during the Hurricane.?
Pacquiao told Dyan Castillejo of ABS-CBN ?Maganda ?yun (that?s good) when asked about a possible clash for the vacant WBC light middleweight crown against Margarito who was the former IBF, WBO and WBA welterweight champion.
Pacquiao also indicated he had no problem fighting in Mexico even saying he is ?excited to fight in Mexico because it will be the first time I?d fight there.?
Pacquiao as well as Ariza have said that the WBO champion who has the additional challenge of attending to his duties as the lone congressman from Sarangani province would train in Manila before winding down his preparation at the Wild Card Gym of trainer Freddie Roach in Los Angeles.
Prior to his departure with Arum for Monterrey, Koncz revealed that the representatives of the Royal Family of the United Arab Emirates called and told him ?they are very optimistic? that the fight will take place in Abu Dhabi.
Koncz said the Abu Dhabi group expects to finalize a deal sometime next week. Koncz revealed ?they called me. They are very excited and I think its going to come together and I relayed that to Bob Arum.?
Top photo: Monterrey devastation.
Click here to view a list of other articles written by Ronnie Nathanielsz.
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