MANNY Pacquiao checked in with excess poundage, but he nevertheless breezed through the PAL counter for his departure to California Sunday evening.
The country’s richest, most famous athlete appeared pudgy, definitely over the 130-pound limit in the super-featherweight division where he campaigns now.
No problem. It was not yet the weigh-in for his next fight.
Yes, they do use generous scales for famous people in airport counters.
However, problem could crop up once Pacquiao checks in at the Wild Card Boxing Club in downtown Hollywood to train for his next fight scheduled on September 10.
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That leaves the overweight Pacquiao only a full month to train, granting he would also hit the road and do gym work on Sundays.
No problem again? Pacquiao should cut corners in order to hit peak form.
But, then, the guy is no stranger to cramming.
He could train for only three weeks then claim he’s already at his best.
He did exactly that against Thailand’s Fahsan 3-K Battery in Taguig last December.
What happened was he ran short of wind starting the third round.
Pacquiao was lucky to have scored a knockout shortly after he had started to huff and puff.
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On September 10, Pacquiao fights a Mexican with a clearly better record than Fahsan.
Hector Velasquez flashes stronger credentials, the reason Pacquiao has opted to train for a full month.
Yes, only 30 days, give and take the necessary breaks.
If to a carefree school kid, that’s as foolish as again coming late to class.
Pacquiao was all the while aware Velasquez would be an easy quiz?
“If Manny is really serious about his next fight, why only a month?” wondered fight expert Hermie Rivera.
It’s no secret Pacquiao is being set up against Erik Morales, his conqueror, in a monumental rematch in Las Vegas tentatively set in January.
In fact, Morales is fighting in the same Staples card on Sept. 10.
Rivera is sincerely convinced promoters would not take a risk to endanger Morales-Pacquiao II, considering the fortune they had raked with the rivalry last March.
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Anyway, we asked Cebu boxing expert and international judge Salven Lagumbay to check on Velasquez who, it would turn out, has knocked out all but one of his last five victims.
One thing is sure, Lagumbay reports, Velasquez is no pushover.
“I just came from Phuket where I judged a WBO fight,” Lagumbay confides. “I met Marco Antonio Barrera’s cutman there and he said Manny would be foolish if he takes Velasquez lightly.”
Fair warning there. But sorry to report that, from the look of things, Pacquiao didn’t appear sufficiently concerned about his next assignment.
In fact, his Pinoy handler, Buboy Fernandez, has expressed dismay over Pacquiao’s poor form a month before the Velasquez clash.
Fernandez rued that Pacquiao, after a four-and-half-month lay-off, could end up overworking his system given the limited schedule.
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Fernandez has described Pacquiao’s next Mexican foe as “a strong body puncher with a quick jab.”
From that limited info, it could be deduced that Velasquez has the makings of a slugger.
This could only mean he cannot be expected to be as sharp and elusive as, say, the formidable Erik Morales.
Again, Hermie Rivera swears promoters won’t be silly to get in someone who can’t fit into Pacquiao’s slambang, slashing style.
That sounds quite believable. The next big promotion could materialize only if Pacquiao gets fed with a robot that stands still and waits to be floored.
But don’t get totally deceived. Dumb, ill-prepared kids, who always come late, often fumble and fail even the easiest quiz.
(RIGHT-ON: Boxer Z Gorres did not just leave the Buddy McGirt camp for home, the homesick fighter had repeatedly begged his manager and finally got the nod to be reunited with his family despite the need to have another bout in the United States. Rudy Salud, Gorres’ erstwhile main handler, made this clarification yesterday… Gov. Manny Pi?ol has vowed to come back after his team scored an overwhelming success with the North Cotabato fruit and food fair at the SM Megamall over the weekend. Pi?ol is also begging the indulgence of city-dwellers whose thirst for fresh goodies from his province they failed to fully assuage despite the tons and tons of daily supply replenishment.)
