Oscar De La Hoya will only be good for nine rounds.
This was the belief of trainer Freddie Roach, whose prized puncher Manny Pacquiao is whipping himself into fighting form for the Golden Boy on Dec. 6 in Las Vegas.
Asked in what round Pacquiao is finally going to catch De La Hoya dead in his tracks, Roach did not hesitate to pick a number in the later rounds.
“Ninth round,” Roach told Dominic Menor of GMAtv. “Whatever he (De La Hoya) brings, we?ll be ready for it.”
If De La Hoya opts to trade at close range, Roach said the 29-year-old Pacquiao will be right there to engage and should the 35-year-old De La Hoya tries to box from a distance and keep Pacquiao at bay, Roach will know how to adjust.
Roach, in an inteview this time with the Bulletin, disclosed that Pacquiao was a bit off during Thursday?s five-round sparring session with super-welterweight Rashad Holloway of North Carolina, a 5-10 who boxes like De La Hoya.
“Manny told me that the alarm system in his apartment kept on buzzing every hour beginning at 1 a.m. and each time it went off, he got up from bed,” said Roach.
Still, Roach didn?t notice anything that is amiss with Pacquiao?s latest showing at the Wild Card Boxing Club in Hollywood.
Roach said the sparring will intensify next week with the arrival of two new sparmates in British lightweight Amir Khan and Texas super-welter Marvin Cordova.
“We?ll add more rounds as they start working with Manny,” said Roach, who has already sent away Arron Robinson and Marcus McDonald for their inability to endure the pain being rendered by the Filipino southpaw.
De La Hoya hasn?t been spectacular in his last two fights against Floyd Mayweather and Steve Forbes and this is the reason why Roach is more than confident of walking away with a victory.
But De La Hoya, training in seclusion in the mountains of Big Bear, California, is upbeat he still has a lot of championship juice left in the tank.
Meanwhile, Top Rank chief Bob Arum disclosed yesterday that Pacquiao will be brought to Sin City five days before his Dec. 6 duel with Oscar De La Hoya on board a fancy bus.
“The bus will have a seating capacity for 30 people and I have told Manny about that and he welcomed it,” said Arum, who is meeting with the Filipino southpaw on Monday in Los Angeles.
The bus, which will be adorned with pictures and designs hyping Pacquiao?s fight with De La Hoya, will be very much like the one that Miguel Cotto, another Top Rank headliner, used when he drove from Los Angeles to Las Vegas for the unforgettable bout with Antonio Margarito last July.
Pacquiao was always driven to Las Vegas from Los Angeles and the only instances when he had to fly from Tinseltown was when he fought Jorge Eliecer Julio in Mephis in June 2002, Marco Antonio Barrera in San Antonio in Nov. 2003 and Jorge Solis in April 2007.
Asked about the chances of setting record-breaking figures in pay-per-view sales, Arum did not categorically say it is going to be highly-improbable.
“There?s a lot of interest in this fight and it?s going to do very, very well (in the PPV) despite the economy,” said Arum, who is aiming to at least draw 1.5 million to 2 million pay-per-view buys.
The current record is 2.4 million buys and it was established when De La Hoya fought Floyd Mayweather last year.
Despite the economic meltdown, Arum is not ruling out the possibility of a stunner in pay-per-view revenues.
“The record of 2.4 million is not out of reach,” added Arum.
