Pound-for-pound king Manny Pacquiao looked flawless in his final workout at the Wild Card Gym in Los Angeles on Monday before taking the flight to Dallas, Texas aboard a specially chartered plane along with his charming wife Jinkee and a planeload of 160 people.
Pacquiao and his entourage arrived in Dallas late at night with the passengers thrilled at the special touch where Pacquiao’s photo and logo were on the seats as well as the cups in flight. The plane was chartered by Pacquiao.
Pacquiao and Jinkee checked in at his spacious suite at the Gaylord Hotel and according to ABS-CBN’s Dyan Castillejo who was with the team said Pacquiao was “really excited.”
She quoted trainer Freddie Roach as saying that after four rounds of sparring with Raymund Beltran and some furious flurries on the punch mitts before leaving for Dallas, that Pacquiao was “the best I’ve ever seen him.”
Castillejo reported that Pacquiao was “aggressive and sensational on the punch-mitts” and by all accounts looked ripped and ready for the performance of his life against the backdrop of the fantastic, state-of-the-art $1.2 billion Dallas Cowboys Stadium of owner Jerry Jones who is determined to make it the “Mecca of Boxing” in this decade.
Roach indicated he and conditioning expert Alex Ariza had to on occasions hold Pacquiao back because he “didn’t want to burn him out.” Roach said that he “normally averages 150 rounds of sparring but will average around 100 rounds for this fight.”
The celebrated trainer revealed that the more he watched Ghana’s former world champion Joshua Clottey as well as Pacquiao “the more confident I get that Manny will be the first person to knock Clottey out. I like Clottey, he is a nice kid and I don’t want to talk trash about him, but its just my feeling and I am very confident in my fighter.”
Roach said Pacquiao has studied the game-plan and “he knows how to fight this guy . He’s watched the tapes now, not just 30 seconds when he gets bored and walks away. He sees the effect.”
Clottey who arrived ahead of Pacquiao looked comfortable as he checked out the ring at the Gaylord Hotel where a fight card in which Filipino boxers Richie Mepranum and Dennis Laurente will see action on the eve of “The Event” headlined by Pacquiao vs Clottey where two more Filipinos - Eden Sonsona and Michael Farenas will be on the undercard.
Clottey didn’t seem bothered by Roach’s prediction of a knockout win by Pacquiao, believing in his own ability to take a punch. Clottey remarked “I have a good chin and we African fighters take a lot of punches but I have a good chin. I never expect myself to get in the ring to get knocked out. I never expect that. No.”
Clearly the big, tough and strong Clottey’s fight plan is to use his size to overcome the smaller Pacquiao who may well enter the ring on fight night giving away at least ten pounds in weight to the challenger who some expect to come in around 160 pounds although his trainer Lenny De Jesus told us he wants to send Clottey into the ring at around 155 pounds.
However, Clottey seems to have other plans and while predicting a “tough fight for both of us” he added “I will be stronger than him because after the weigh-in I am going to eat and I am going to blow up.”
Clottey said he hasn’t felt better and “this is the best I felt. It started when I went to Africa where I was training on the beach. I came to America, went to Florida and we went to the beach all the time. So I was training a lot.”
Clottey’s manager Vinny Scolpino and trainer de Jesus who worked in Pacquiao’s corner for six fights and ended his ties when Shelly Finkel took over as Pacquiao’s promoter, both realize that Clottey probably lost a fight he should have won against Miguel Cotto because he didn’t throw too many punches in the last two rounds which is something they say they have corrected.
Scolpino noted that tings changed during training camp and Clottey “is throwing more punches and combinations and knows he has to let his hands loose in there” even as he indicated they were happy seeing the change in his work on the mitts.
Pacquiao’s adviser Michael Koncz told ABS-CBN in an interview that they are not underestimating Clottey and that “Manny is not taking it lightly.” Koncz said all these years they had gone through the same routine of press conferences, interviews and media workouts but this time he hadn’t “seen him (Pacquiao) so excited when we were Dallas at the stadium. At least five times a week he’s telling me about the stadium so he’s very excited about that. He knows this is the first boxing match there and its important to make a big showing.”
Top Rank promoter Bob Arum who was on hand in Dallas to welcome Pacquiao conceded that while Pacquiao is the best pound-for-pound fighter in the world he will be facing “what may be his toughest, toughest test when he takes on Clottey who is a really rugged, tough welterweight that most fighters are afraid to fight. Clottey comes to fight.”
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