SPEED, movement, more body attacks and, above all, more jabs.
That’s what Manny Pacquiao thinks will carry him to victory in his rematch with Erik Morales when they clash January 21 at the Thomas and Mack Center in Las Vegas, Nevada (January 22 in Manila).
Having watched tape of his Mexican rival’s defeat to Zahir Raheem last September, Pacquiao said he picked up several points the former US Olympian used to subdue “El Terrible” in their lightweight bout that should help him win the rematch.
“In his fight against Raheem, I have seen Erik’s mistakes,” the Filipino boxing icon told a panel of American writers during a conference call earlier this week to build up his fight with Morales, who won their first encounter last March 19, also in Las Vegas.
“I need to use my jab more when we fight again. I need speed, more movement and more body attacks,” Pacquiao added.
The former flyweight and super bantamweight world champion lost a unanimous decision to Morales, but many in the crowd at the MGM Grand Casino and Hotel and the millions who watched the encounter on television felt it would have had a different ending if the Filipino icon had not suffered an accidental head butt in the fifth round.
Ring Magazine, boxing’s acknowledged bible, recently predicted a Morales victory in its preview of the second fight, but the magazine’s editor in chief Nigel Collins also said Pacquiao need not worry about it if he could use his jab more effectively.
Collins said the preview was the opinion of Ring’s managing editor Erik Raskin, who wrote the article, but personally he wasn’t so sure that the Mexican would prevail.
He said Pacquiao had a “very good chance” of winning if he figures out a way to handle Morales’ jab, which according to statistics in the first fight connected 34 percent of the time (96 of 303 jabs thrown) compared with the Filipino’s low 10 percent (34 of 349).
“I think the Zahir Raheem fight showed how vulnerable Morales is to movement. If Manny can use his legs to dart in, score, and then get out, he can win,” added Collins.
Pacquiao, coming off a sound 6th-round knockout of Morales’ compatriot Hector Velazquez also on that September fight card, vowed in a press conference Wednesday that the outcome of the rematch would be in his favor.
“PacMan” will stake his World Boxing Council International super featherweight title against Morales, hoping also to set up a dream return bout with Marco Antonio Barrera—the current WBC and International Boxing Federation 130-lb kingpin whom he defeated in November 2003.
The WBC has decreed that the winner of the second Pacquiao-Morales tiff will become the No. 1 contender to Barrera. The boxing body also voted their first fight as the most dramatic for 2005 at its recent convention at its Mexico City headquarters.
Freddie Roach, Pacquiao’s trainer, also said in the conference call that his ward’s training “has been going very well” as the former two-time world champion “is very focused, much more focused than the last time around.”
“And you know this guy [Morales] beat us last time and we want revenge in the worst way… [Pacquiao] is training very hard. We have some great sparring partners for this fight and everything is going real well. Everything is right on schedule and I can’t wait for this fight to happen,” Roach added.
