Manny Pacquiao will need speed, mobility and body attacks to gain revenge in his rematch with Mexican Erik Morales in Las Vegas on Saturday night. The fight at the Thomas and Mack Centre will be shown live on SuperSport 6 on DStv. Coverage of the preliminaries starts at 04:00, SA time, on Sunday.
When Morales, 48-3 (34), lost to Zahir Raheem in September last year he looked slow and sluggish. He was fighting at lightweight and was beaten by the speed and movement of Raheem. This augurs well for Pacquiao, whose record stands at 40-3-2 (32).
However, the 29-year-old Morales has something to prove. He comes into this fight lean and mean, and knowing he won their first fight by unanimous decision.
Pacquiao, a Filipino, has said: “In his fight against Raheem, I saw Erik’s mistakes. I must use my jab more when we fight again. I need speed, more movement and more body attacks.”
In their first fight, in March last year, the 27-year-old Pacquiao suffered a cut from an accidental head butt in the fifth round. Many felt it affected his performance and cost him the fight.
Pacquiao will be at a disadvantage against the taller Morales who uses the jab effectively.
Uless he works out a plan to get past that accurate left hand, “Pacman” could be on the losing end again after 12 hard rounds.
Pacquiao will be defending his WBC International title. If he wins, he may get a return match against Marco Antonio Barrera in a clash for the WBC and IBF junior lightweight belts held by Barrera.
The WBC has ruled that the winner of Saturday’s fight between Pacquiao and Morales will become the No 1 contender for Barrera’s titles.
A three-time world champion, Morales must win this one to keep his career on track after only one win in his last three fights. That was on March 19 against Pacquiao. His losses were to Barrera in November 2004 and to Zahir in September 2005.
Pacquiao has good form in training at Freddie Roach’s Wild Card gym and has been kept away from his family during the holidays. Some observerspredict he will be twice as sharp as in their first fight.
Morales may have had too many hard fights recently and unless he picks up his game, Pacquiao could well beat him in what should be s splendid fight.
