BAGUIO CITY – Barring any untoward incident that might have occurred last night, seven-division world champion Manny Pacquiao shifts his preparations for his coming world superwelterweight championship bout with Antonio Margarito to high gear today.
After eight days of confining his build up program to doing mitts with chief trainer Freddie Roach, shadow boxing and physical conditioning regimen, the reigning junior-welterweight champ turns his focus into his main job – fighting atop the square arena – with his long-awaited sparring against up-and-coming mates.
Mexican super-welterweight champion Michael Medina and New Jersey prospect Glen Tapia have, for the past week, been waiting in the wings to lay their hands on the world’s pound-for-pound king and give the Filipino icon what they can offer by way of providing the Pacman a glimpse of what stuff Margarito is made of in terms of fighting style.
Their turn to do that starting today, two days after Roach himself canceled the scheduled start of sparring Tuesday on fears that Pacquiao’s injury had worsened following a two-hour basketball game Monday night.
The game pitting Team Pacquiao against a local squad lasted near midnight resulting in the Sarangani Congressman not being able to do his routine morning roadwork and led Roach to suspect he hurt his left heel.
Pacquiao though easily erased his trainer’s suspicion with an untiring work on the mitts that had his trainer of nine years all smile after the 12-round session elated on his ward’s superb physical condition.
“It’s gonna be Thursday,” Roach blurted out to the Manila Times in the post-session interview. “I’m 100 percent the start of the long sparring will be on Thursday so we can focus on game plan and strategy.”
Roach, owner of the famous Wild Card Gym in Los Angeles in California who between Medina and Tapia takes a crack first except saying both can as both resemble Margarito’s fighting style.
Sparring at the Coyesan Hotel gym will be closed door.
Roach had stated in the early stage of training at the Elorde Boxing Gym in Quezon City that Medina could play the most important role in sparring.
The least known out of the bunch line up by Roach, including stylish Julio Cezar Chavez, who will be arriving within the week, but Medina is a fighter with good skills, who has sparred with numerous solid fighters.
Medina owns a respectable record of 24 Wins against 2 losses and what makes him a most ideal is his experience in sparring against top fighters. He was Floyd Mayweather’s and Chavez Jr.'s sparring partner in their respective fights against Mosley and Duddy.
Coincidentally, those fight are the biggest fights so far in the career of Floyd and Chavez Jr., making serve, too, good luck charm.
At 20 years of age and sporting a 7-0 record with 5 stoppages, Tapia, on he other hand, offers his youth, physical strength and aggression that would be a welcome change of pace in camp.
“They needed a young guy, a prospect, who was just a little bit faster,” Tapia said in a talk with this writer. “I was told that the first name that came up to their (Team Pacquiao’s) mind was me. So they called me up and that was it, suddenly I’m here.”
“This is a great opportunity for me. This is a great experience for me. I’m just happy to be in the Philippines and being Pacquiao’s main sparring partner,”he said.
Before leaving overseas Tapia from Dominican Republic, doubled as a trainer in Roach’s Wild Card Gym in Los Angeles.
Besides helping in preparing Pacquiao for his Nov. 13 fight at the Dallas Cowboys’ Stadium in Texas, both Tapia and Medina also hope to gain valuable experience the can use in their chosen profession.
Source: PhilBoxing.com
