TRAINER SOMODIO PRAISES FARENAS ATTITUDE IN TRAINING
By Ronnie Nathanielsz
PhilBoxing.com
Tue, 08 Jul 2014
Freddie Roach?s talented little Filipino assistant Marvin Somodio who continues to work with some of the biggest names in the business such as Miguel Cotto and Ruslan Provodnikov has praised featherweight Michael ?Hammer Fist? Farenas for his attitude in training.
Somodio who handled the training of the hard-hitting southpaw who blasted previously undefeated American prospect Mark Davis in an IBF title eliminator winning by an 8th round TKO last Wednesday on ESPN's Friday Night Fights paid tribute to former two division world champion Gerery Penalosa and elder brother Carl Penalosa for Farenas? ?great training in Manila? prior to his departure for the Wild Card Gym.
Viva Sports covered the training of Farenas for its top rated boxing show The Main Event and was impressed with his furious sparring session with promising young Al Rivera and had predicted that Farenas would have too much power and experience for Davis who while undefeated had only 5 knockouts in 18 wins.
Somodio told the Manila Standard that Farenas was ?in great shape after hard training in the Philippines? and all they had to do was to refine the fight plan for the showdown with the favored Davis and teach Farenas ?how to throw his power punches and apply the right tactics.?
The trainer said they were ?all very happy when they saw Farenas respond to their instructions during the fight.?
He said Farenas who is a soft-spoken but devastating southpaw puncher had some great sparring at the Wild Card Gym especially against former world lightweight title challenger Dennis Shafikov of Russia who has a record of 33-1-1 with 18 knockouts.
Gerry Penalosa told us that Farenas who had sacrificed while in training by being away from his family for two months is visiting them in Los Angeles and will return to Manila on July 12.
Penalosa had earlier said Farenas was hungry for a win and a chance to fight for a world title and his smashing win over the highly touted Davis put him in line for a crack at the winner of the July 10 title rematch between Argenis Mendez and Rances Barthalemy.
Photo: Michael Farenas shows his swollen left fist a couple of days after his victory over Mark Davis on July 2 where Davis ate a lot of Farenas' lefts. Photo by Jhay Otamias.
Click here to view a list of other articles written by Ronnie Nathanielsz.
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