Manny Pacquiao suffered a nasty cut over his right eye last March when he lost a unanimous decision to Erik Morales. The deepest hurt wasn’t apparent, however, because it involved Pacquiao’s emotions.
“I had a lot of distractions with my promoter, and then I found out I couldn’t wear the gloves I’ve always used,” said Pacquiao (40-3-2, 31 KOs), who vows to get his revenge Saturday night when he meets Morales (48-3, 34 KOs) in the 12-round super featherweight rematch at the Thomas and Mack Center in Las Vegas on HBO Pay-Per-View.
“I’m more focused than before, and I’m going to win,” he said.
For non-stop action and sheer guts, Morales-Pacquiao I ranks as one of 2005’s most exciting bouts. But Pacquiao admits his head wasn’t into it. Less than a week before the fight, Pacquiao learned promoter Murad Muhammad had negotiated away his right to wear his preferred boxing gloves for ones with softer padding.
According to Freddie Roach, Pacquiao’s trainer, the bad vibes had already been festering when Muhammad claimed the biggest hotel suite for himself and relegated Pacquiao to a one-bedroom suite shared with eight other people. “And he didn’t get his tickets (for family and friends) for the fight,” Roach said.
Pacquiao, 27, sued to end his contract with Muhammad and has replaced him with promoter Gary Shaw and manager Shelly Finkel. He also takes blame for not taking the first fight as seriously as he should have.
“(Marco Antonio) Barrera had beaten Morales, and Manny had beaten Barrera, and I just think Manny took him lightly, believing he was on the downside,” Roach said. “But we miscalculated. We won’t do that this time. Morales will still have the reach and height advantage, but Manny will have speed going for him. And he knows he has to win this fight.”
Morales, 29, also sees the rematch as a must-win situation. He moved up to the lightweight division for the first time last September and was upset by former U.S. Olympian Zahir Raheem, whose stunning 12-round unanimous decision was on the same card that Pacquiao TKO’d Hector Velazquez at 2:50 of the sixth round. Both fights were supposed to be tuneups, but Morales couldn’t get anything going. “I still can’t l believe I lost that fight,” he said. “It was one of those nights you don’t think is ever going to happen.”
Pacquiao, from the Philippines, and Morales, from Mexico, both expect a large contingent of supporters from their respective countries. Oddsmakers see the fight as a virtual tossup. “In the first fight, I was able to dictate the pace with my jab and movement,” said Morales, who doesn’t plan to change much. “The biggest thing to me is when I attacked him, he didn’t know what to do.”
Pacquiao and Roach studied tapes of Morales’ loss to Raheem and picked up nuances they think will help. “I saw the best of Erik Morales, but he didn’t see the best of me,” Pacquiao said. “The last time, a lot of distractions played on my mind. Let’s see how he handles the best of me this weekend.”
Morales said his upset loss to Raheem has only intensified his commitment to get back on top.
“I know how important this fight is to me,” he said. “I cannot afford to lose. But I’m very confident I will win it because of what happened the first time.”
