Filipino boxing idol Manny Pacquiao on Friday dismissed reports that he and American trainer Freddie Roach are quarreling as he started training in General Santos City for his July 2 match against Mexican Oscar “Chololo” Larios, the ABS-CBN news website reported.
“We understand each other and we don’t have any problem,” Pacquiao said in Filipino in a radio interview Friday from General Santos.
Pacquiao said following his training in his hometown, he will leave for the United States next week. In previous preparations, the ring idol trained at Roach’s Wild Card boxing gym in Los Angeles, California.
Roach has insisted that his charge start his intensive training in the States because “he has too many distractions” in the country.
He said the training for the July 2 bout at the Araneta Coliseum would be similar to prefight matches done before his bout with Mexican Erik Morales last year.
Pacquiao said he is confident of outpunching Larios but would not take it easy against the former WBC super bantamweight champion.
He said that Larios has the edge over Morales because of his height and longer reach.
Pacquiao said he also needs to lose weight. The boxer said he weighs 138 pounds, eight heavier than the ideal 130-pound limit that the main protagonists in the “Mano a Mano” card will be fighting at.
However, Pacquiao said with the support of his fellow Filipinos, he is confident that he would retain the World Boxing Council international super featherweight belt against Larios.
On Thursday American TV promoter Frank Belmont warned Pacquiao that his fight with Oscar Larios of Mexico on July 2 at the Araneta Coliseum is not just a walk in the park.
“Larios is a good boxer, not a great puncher, durable, quick, experienced and not easily intimidated,” Belmont described the Mexican fighter from Guadalajara.
As president of Belmonte Productions, Belmont knows whereof he speaks. He was an eyewitness in the separate fights of Larios and Pacquiao in the “Boxeo de Oro” monthly TV series for Latin-American countries, exclusively for the Golden Boy Promotions.
Larios is a mainstay of the Golden Boy Promotions under the banner of Oscar dela Hoya.
“Larios is not a very impressive fighter, but he is very professional, always walking with his hands encased in enormous white training gloves searching for sparmates in the club,” said Belmont. “The Mexican has all the tools and if I was a manager, I’d like to own him.”
