Mexican legend Marco Antonio Barrera (r) beating Prince Naseem Hamed in 2001

An old boxing sage once told me that he measured the capability of a fighter on the face of a clock. At 12 o’clock, the boxer is at his peak. At five to, he’s almost there. At five past, he’s just heading over the hill. Can Marco Antonio Barrera turn back the clock?

Hopefully Manny Pacquiao can give Khan some tips as he’s fought Barrera before

At the news conference to announce the fight, Khan’s promoter Frank Warren said it was the biggest step-up in class he’d ever asked one of his prospects to take. It’s a roll of the dice, he later told us on Five Live.   The gamble is a calculated one, containing two elements which have become familiar in Warren’s match-making formula when pitting a young prospect against a big name: Barrera is past his best and all his best form belongs in lower weight divisions.   Even so, it’s some form. A world champion at three weights, he’s the only man to beat Naseem Hamed and a 2-1 winner over fellow-Mexican Erik Morales in one of the great boxing trilogies of all time.   Two fights ago, Barrera was outpointed by Manny Pacquiao. Two fights ago, Khan was bludgeoned to the canvas by Breidis Prescott. Since then, Khan has linked up with Freddie Roach at the Wild Card gym in Hollywood in a move which could prove to be the most important of his career.   Roach was in Pacquiao’s corner for both fights against Barrera (both wins) and told Five Live Boxing that Khan is ready for the upgrade.

“Potentially, it’s a contest of beauty and brutality. But whose time is it?”

“I know what styles Barrera struggles with so we’ll bring in the perfect sparring partners. He’s a tough, tough guy but we’ll have an A plan and a B plan.”   Roach will be in Khan’s corner for the first time but the onus is on Khan to make his own adjustments also.   Barrera’s performance against Pacquiao in their most recent clash indicated that, although he turns 35 this month, he’s retained much of his guile if not his reflexes.   If Prescott found the gaps, surely Barrera can too. Or will a second, intensive training camp with Roach be enough to shore up the leaks in Khan’s defence?   Weight, reach, youth and speed are all in Khan’s favour. Yet Barrera has the pedigree and the experience to nullify them all.

Potentially, it’s a contest of beauty and brutality. But whose time is it? March 14th… get out the calendar and start ticking off the days.

Roach expresses his dislike for Oscar De La Hoya’s trainer “Nacho” Beristain even though he commends Oscar for being a nice guy. But Roach adds, his guy is Manny Pacquiao and he is confident the Filipino will win by knockout on December 6.

While Manny Pacquiao concedes that Oscar De La Hoya has a height and reach advantage he believes his speed and punching power will overcome these disadvantages that he has to contend with in their “Dream Match” at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas on December 6.

HBO has released a 2 and a half minute trailer for the series of behind the scene documentary on video sharing site YouTube. The cable giant has produced the series to promote the dream match between Pacquiao and De La Hoya. The Trailer shows snippets of De La Hoya and Pacquiao filmed during training with beautifuly crafted shots and editing that has been the bar that HBO has set and continues to trailblaze in the field of sports production. The special 4-part series entitled De La Hoya/Pacquiao 24/7 begins airing on HBO in the US on November 16.

MyBoxingFans.com visits Oscar De La Hoyas training camp in Big Bear, CA before his Dream Match fight against Manny Pacquiao.

Filipino ring idol Manny Pacquiao continues his training at the Wild Card Gym of celebrated two-time “Trainer of the Year” Freddie Roach in relentless fashion as he prepares for his “Dream Match” against Oscar De La Hoya at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas on December 6.

In an overseas telephone conversation with www.insidesports.ph, Standard Today and Viva Sports, Pacquiao’s conditioning guru said he sparred a total of seven rounds today (Tuesday in the US) . He said he first went four rounds with Rashad Holloway and followed up with another three rounds with Marvin “Much-too-Much” Cordova whom he sparred with for the first time.

The 27 year old Holloway is over 5’10” is a light middleweight with a record of 9-1 with 5 knockouts while light welterweight Cordova is undefeated with a record of 20-0-1 with 11 knockouts.

Ariza said Holloway was “taller than De La Hoya and definitely bigger than De La Hoya” and that Pacquiao “looked good and did better than I expected.” He described Cordova as “very good, very big and very fast” and said he stepped into the ring to spar with Pacquiao after he had done four rounds with Holloway.

Ariza revealed that Pacquiao had gotten to Cordova who told him after the sparring session that “Manny’s body shots wore him down.”

Ariza said that his sparring session with British lightweight Amir Khan (18-1, 14 KO’s) last Saturday also went very well but that Khan would spar with Pacquiao only occasionally since it doesn’t benefit Khan in preparation for his next fight also on December 6 against an opponent who is orthodox and not a southpaw like Pacquiao.

Following his sparring session with Pacquiao Khan was quoted by Lance Pugmire of the Los Angeles Times as saying “Manny is in great shape – very explosive, very fast, you don’t know where his punches are coming from. He’s got a good chance to beat Oscar.”

The conditioning expert who was credited with doing a great job in helping prepare Pacquiao for his 9^th round demolition of WBC lightweight champion David Diaz in a fight where the Filipino southpaw carried his weight well, showed remarkable hand-speed and awesome punching power said Pacquiao was different from other fighters., after another. He is relentless and never gives you time to catch your breath

Ariza said when he lands a punch “its one after another

He said “once he catches you with a good shot he will give you no rest.” Ariza said Pacquiao was currently holding his weight at 152 pounds and he was very happy with that and the way the preparations were going, overall.

Top Rank promoter Bob Arum said Roach was “very, very pleased and its tremendous.”

Arum also expressed the hope that the election of Barack Obama as President of the United States would help lift confidence and help improve economic conditions which also have a bearing on the sport in terms of attendance at the fights and pay-per-view buys. He said he voted some ten days ago because he didn’t want to stand in line for five hours on election day and predicted the Democrats would win because “this president (George Bush) has been a disaster.”