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Philippines, 16 Dec 2025 |
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WILDCARD WEDNESDAY: MARGARITO BETTER BE PREPARED OTHERWISE IT WILL BE A SHORT NIGHT By Ed de la Vega, DDS PhilBoxing.com Thu, 04 Nov 2010  Superstar Pacquiao (R) does the mitts with Trainer Freddie Roach at the Wildcard Gym in Los Angeles Wednesday. Hollywood, CA:- It was a nice day at Los Angeles today with the temperatures hovering in the 80?s. Being my day off with nothing to do except to listen and watch the elections results on TV which became boring after a while, I decided to drive to the Wildcard Gym in Hollywood to check out the scene. I got there bright an early to check out the up and coming boxers training before the Pacman takes over the gym at a little after noon. First on the list was the grandson of the great Flash Elorde, Juan Martin ?Bai? Elorde. The 26 year old is one of the three Filipinos scheduled to fight on the undercard of the Pacquiao-Margarito tiff on November 13th at the Cowboys Stadium at Arlington, Texas. Elorde quietly toiled in the background just doing his thing under the watchful eyes of his father Johnny Elorde. Also there to keep him company is his younger brother, Juan Miguel ?Migs? Elorde who like his brother is also an undefeated boxer. I watched Elorde do the routines, shadow boxing, skip ropes and a few rounds with the heavy bags and the speed bags. He also had four rounds doing the mitts with Coach Nathan, the trainer of Richi Mepranum. Elorde (11-0-0,4KO) is totally focused on his fight. Being his debut in the US and under the spotlights at the cavernous Cowboys Stadium, he is determined to put together a good effort and win. ?A great win will do wonders for his budding career,? his Dad informed this writer. ?That is why we are totally focused on the task ahead,? he added. Elorde will be trading leathers with Angel Rodriguez (4-4-2,4KO) a Mexican-American out of Houston, Texas. 
Juan Martin "Bai" Elorde training at Wildcard Gym. Also in town to provide support for the young man from Paranaque is his Mom Lisa. ?I may stay in the dugout when my son fights, she says. I get too nervous and I can?t stand watching him fight. But I know that he will win because he is well prepared for this fight. The second Filipino on the undercard is Dennis Laurente (35-3-5,18KO), another boxer from the Elorde Stable. Laurente is set to fight Rashad Holloway (11-1-2,5KO) Manny Pacquiao?s sparmate. Holloway is trained by Coach Eric Brown, one of the coaches that tutors at the Wildcard Gym and is a prot?g?e of Freddie Roach. 
Dennis Laurente (R) spars. As to why Holloway and Laurente were matched against each other is s subject of talks at the gym. In a small way, it created minor problems for Freddie Roach as he had to juggle the schedule so that Laurente trains in the morning and Holloway in the late afternoon. The third Filipino boxer on the fight card is Richi Mepranum, (22-2-1,5KO) a former world title challenger who hails from Sarangani. Richi was coached by Coach Nathan when he fought and beat Hernan Tyson Marquez at Grapevine, Texas the day before Pacquiao beat Clottey. After his victory over Marquez, he was matched against Julio Cesar Miranda for the vacant WBO flyweight title. He lost via 5th round TKO. 
Richie Mepranum (L) does the mitts with Trainer Nathan Tinagsa. Mepranum is scheduled to fight Anthony Villareal (10-3-0, 5KO). A few weeks ago, he was seen training under the supervision of Nonoy Neri and Buboy Fernandez. But lately, he is back with Coach Nathan. Hopefully, the very late switch in trainers may not have an effect on Mepranum as a lost will effectively eliminate his chances of fighting in the US again in as much as it was mentioned in the grapevine that he maybe dropped by the MP Promotions due to differences in training philosophies between the MP people and Mepranum himself. Also in the gym today before the Pacman came was Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. Junior had a session with Alex Ariza and several hard rounds doing the mitts with Freddie Roach. He appears in good shape already in spite of the fact that his fight is several weeks away. Amir Khan also came to train but he did not start until after the Pacman was done. He too had a session with Ariza and several rounds on the mitts with Freddie Roach. Khan was a delight to watch. He is fast, in fact very fast. And, he hits hard as well. The Pacman came a little after 2 PM. By that time, the gym was cleared of people except those who had to do with the Team Pacquiao, the HBO people and a few select media people, this writer included. Pacquiao started his training as usual. He had stretching exercises supervised by Alex Ariza. Following that, he went several hard rounds with Freddie Roach doing the mitts and polishing off their strategy to bring down the tornado from Tijuana. Then he did shadow boxing, the double ended speed bag, the skip rope and cooling down exercises supervised by Buboy Fernandez and Nonoy Neri. For what ever it is worth I think it is worthwhile to mention that all those talks about Pacquiao being under or poorly trained to this writer have no merits. The Pacquiao I saw today seem to have the same speed, the same power and the enthusiasm to train. Hopefully Margarito will come prepared to fight. Otherwise, he maybe in for a short evening. Click here to view a list of other articles written by Ed de la Vega, DDS.  |
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