FORTUNE SAYS SOLIS IS NO MARQUEZ OR BARRERA
By Ronnie Nathanielsz
PhilBoxing.com
Fri, 30 Mar 2007
Justin Fortune who is training Filipino ring idol Manny Pacquiao in the absence of the celebrated two-time “Trainer of the Year” Freddie Roach for his April 14 fight against Mexican Jorge Solis in San Antonio, Texas has downplayed the qualities of Pacquiao’s opponent.
In an interview with Lisa Scott of Fight News, Fortune said that while Solis has a nice jab “his right hand is not devastating. He’s a good fighter but he’s not a (Juan Manuel) Marquez or a (Marco Antonio) Barrera.”
Fortune classified Pacquiao as a Triple-A fighter while Solis was “just an A fighter.” He said Pacquiao will be “just too fast and strong for Solis. Its as simple as that.” He noted that people know Pacquiao is fast “but they have no idea how fast until they get in the ring with him.”
Even former WBC super flyweight champion Gerry Pe?alosa who previewed tapes of previous Solis fights and watched Pacquiao train at the Wild Card Gym didn’t give Solis a prayer against Pacquiao saying he was “mahina (weak).”
While Solis does have a decent jab using his 5’10” height advantage he is comparatively slow, has no defense and no punching power and the consensus among boxing aficionados is that Pacquiao will knock him out whenever he wants to.
Meantime, Fortune played down efforts to hype the fact that Pacquiao sustained a one inch cut across his left eyebrow during a sparring session at the Wild Card gym. Fortune said Pacquiao “did not get cut. It was just a scratch. It really is nothing.”
Click here to view a list of other articles written by Ronnie Nathanielsz.
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