JORGE SOLIS of Mexico is going the extra mile in his training for the biggest fight of his life.
Lined up against Manny Pacquiao, boxing’s most explosive puncher, on April 14 at the Alamodome in San Antonio, Texas, Solis has been in deep training in his native Guadalajara and is booked to set up training camp in the Otomi mountains, the high-altitude venue near the city of Toluca that’s home to Mexico’s big-named boxers preparing for big fights.
It was also at the Otomi where Erik Morales trained for crucial matches.
“Solis will move (to Toluca) in March,” said Top Rank publicist Ricardo Jimenez, whose promotional outfit will put up the much-anticipated return to the ring of the Filipino star.
Solis is unbeaten with a win-loss-draw card of 32-0-2 with 23 knockouts and is rated No. 2 by the World Boxing Council in the featherweight class.
Although nobody knows much about him, Solis is a fine counter-puncher like Juan Manuel Marquez, the crafty Mexican who battled Pacquiao to a 12-round draw in 2004, according to Jimenez, who also serves as Spanish interpreter for Top Rank.
While Solis is already sweating it out heavily the past couple of weeks, Pacquiao has also been doing almost the same although his training has been on and off owing to various commitments around the country.
Even though he was in Cebu over the weekend, Pacquiao still managed to squeeze in a two-hour workout at the Cebu City Sports Complex.
Pacquiao plans to fly to Los Angeles on March 6 and report for work at the Wild Card in Hollywood the next day.
Pacquiao hasn’t fought since mauling Morales in the third round in November last year in Las Vegas.
