Filipino sports hero Manny Pacquiao yesterday held a non-stop 70-minute media workout at the Wild Card Gym in Hollywood, California and as usual dazzled everyone with his blazing handspeed and devastating power.
According to 15rounds.com, Pacquiao threw in a mix of handspeed, power, and some much improved foot-movement, which the General Santos City fighter hopes to put on display in his rematch with Mexican Erik Morales on January 21 at the Thomas & Mack Center in Las Vegas, Nevada.
Pacquiao warned Morales he will see the real Manny Pacquiao in their second encounter billed as “The Battle,” adding that he has no other thing in mind than winning.
“He (Morales) didn’t see the best of me last time, but rest assured he’ll see the best of me this time,” Pacquiao told fightnews.com.
“I don’t know how I’m going to beat him, but I will win. I don’t anticipate losing this fight. I want to win and I think I’m going to win.”
After Pacquiao entered the ring for his media workout, he stretched for several minutes before throwing on a pair of “Winning” boxing gloves – the same brand he wore for his first meeting with Morales. He immediately began hitting the mitts, with the rest of the gym looking on.
“Pacquiao’s movement was surprising. Not so much, the fact that he was moving around more, but at how well he moved,” stated 15rounds.com.
During their first fight, Morales drove Pacquiao to the ropes on several occasions, prompting him to put his gloves in front of his face, in a completely defensive posture, which invited Morales to continue punching.
Pacquiao’s celebrated Freddie Roach is confident things would be different this time around compared to Pacquiao’s first meeting with Morales, where the Filipino lost by unanimous decision.
“I want Manny to do a better job staying off of the ropes,” said Roach. “It’s something we’ve been working on. You will see a much better fight this time around.”
On the other hand, Morales reiterated he will just let his punches do the talking come the big day.
“You prepare yourself to win and that’s what I’m going to do.Losing is not in a winner’s mentality. All I’m thinking about is winning,” said Morales.
“Everyone has a plan, but you still have to do it up in the ring. (Pacquiao) has a promoter and a trainer who spend a lot of time talking about what they’re going to do to me. Well, let’s put it up in the ring and see if their fighter is good enough to execute what they say they’re going to do to me,” he added.
