PACQUIAO WON’T GO BACK TO LIGHTWEIGHT
by Ronnie Nathanielsz
Filipino ring idol and national treasure Manny Pacquiao won’t go back to the lightweight division after his “Dream Match” against Oscar De La Hoya at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas on December 6.
That’s what his conditioning expert Alex Ariza told www.insidesports.ph, Standard Today and Viva Sports in an overseas telephone conversation Sunday, Manila Time, after Pacquiao had worked out at celebrated trainer Freddie Roach’s Wild Card Gym.
Both Pacquiao and Roach had indicated some weeks ago that after the De La Hoya showdown at the stipulated weight of 147 pounds Pacquiao was looking to fight Britain ’s Ricky “The Hitman” Hatton and to possibly entice Floyd Mayweather Jr out of retirement.
The recent controversy with the WBC over the non-payment of an outstanding obligation for the WBC super featherweight title fight against Juan Manuel Marquez and the organization’s slapping Pacquiao with a $100,000 sanction fees for a fight it refused to sanction and bitterly condemned hasn’t even been discussed by Pacquiao.
Ariza said that Pacquiao was training very hard and looking very good and that he “hasn’t mentioned any of that. Those are things Manny doesn’t really get caught up in. They are kind of trivial and he just shakes it off.”
Ariza said “ besides my understanding is that he is not going to campaign at 135 any more.” The conditioning guru who handled Pacquiao’s weight and physical well-being in exemplary fashion for the lightweight title fight against David Diaz which Pacquiao won in a ninth round demolition said “this will be the only time he will fight at 147 ” and he wasn’t sure how Pacquiao will carry the extra weight.
He said “once he loses those six or seven pounds that will be the difference.”
Ariza said he was confident that Pacquiao “can dominate at 140 just as he was at 130 and 135.” The planned Hatton fight will be at 140.
Pacquiao showed no signs of being upset over the sanction fee controversy as he sparred eight solid rounds with 27 year old 5’10” light middleweight Rashad Holloway (9-1, 5 KO’s) and undefeated 5’11” Marvin “Much Too Much” Cordova (20-0-1, 11 ‘s), going four rounds with each fighter. Pacquiao then went five rounds on the punch-mitts with Roach.
Ariza said Pacquiao and Holloway “started off real well but once Manny starts going to the body they kind of slow up a lot.” He said the body attack is “indicative of what the Oscar fight will be. Oscar will move around real well for the first few rounds but I think once Manny gets shots to the body by the sixth round he (De La Hoya) will be just there to hit all night.”
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