Manny Pacquiao and Oscar Larios will square off this Sunday in the Araneta Coliseum, Manila, the Philippines for the WBC Super featherweight title. Known as the ‘Mexican Assassin’ Pacquiao will try to defeat another Latin American to cement his status as the best featherweight fighter around.
Larios is moving up from the Super bantamweight division to the super featherweight division, and is looking to come back from a TKO loss to Israel Vasquez in December of last year. In taking on the Filipino power puncher in his own country, Larios looks to be the proverbial sacrificial lamb. So confident that he will win, Pacquiao even has date with Erik Morales in November of this year.
But make no mistake about it, the Guadalajara born brawler is an extremely tough fighter with an iron will and chin to match.
“Larios has been a world champion. He knows what it feels like to be a champion, so he has that confidence”, Pacquiao’s trainer, Freddy Roach told Secondsout.
Having ample experience in opposing the Mexican, (training Israel Vasquez and Wayne McCullough for fights the former super bantam weight king), Roach is well qualified to talk about the fighter known as ‘Chololo’.
“There’s no easy fight out there. Larios is going to come and give it his best shot and we’re expecting a good fight”, he continued.
“That is, until it’s finished”.
And like Roach, most in the boxing world believing Larios will not see the final bell, the odds being stacked heavily against him.
However, Larios sees things quite differently.
“Beating Pacquiao is not impossible,” said the gangly Mexican, who seems confident he can take it to the ‘Pac Man’.
“I am not even nervous and it doesn’t matter if this fight takes place in Las Vegas, Mexico or here in the Philippines” he said in response to questions about fighting in Paquiao’s back yard.
“I know this is a tough fight, but I am thinking of a win”.
Given the odds are so heavily in favour of the ‘Pac Man’, does team Pacquiao feel that they may be underestimating the wily veteran?
“Well, that’s why we kept him in Los Angeles”, Roach said.
“He’s in great shape for the fight like he always is. He’s at 100 %. You know Manny trains this way for everybody, he doesn’t take anyone lightly, and we’re ready to go.”
Larios has also taken training extremely seriously, moving his camp to the famous Teiken gym in Tokyo, Japan to get some quality southpaw training in a location closer to the Philipine time-zone.
“We have chosen Teiken gym because it has spar mates who are shorter and left-handed junior lightweights that will be helpful so Larios can adapt to Pacquiao’s southpaw stance,” said Edison Reynoso, Larios’ trainer.
With both fighters taking the other seriously, what can we expect from their fight this Sunday?
Any fight with Manny Pacquiao promises fire works, given the Filipino’s propensity to fire on all cylinders for every round he fights. And matched with Larios, a clever boxer brawler with a huge reach advantage, we should see a highly entertaining fight.
The weight issue probably won’t be too important, but Pacquiao should have a slight advantage having competed at the 130lb limit for a couple of years. He will better equipped to deal with the extra weight, and his power will be accentuated. However, Larios is a very large super bantamweight, and should not have too many problems carrying the weight (seeing as he has had huge difficulties making the 122lb limit).
With the general consensus being that Pacquiao will blast Larios out before the 6th round, how much chance doe the Mexican realistically have of beating the Filipino superstar?
Larios has proved his ability to resist pressure in facing extremely big punchers, and skilled operators alike (Israel Vasquez, Wayne McCullough and Nedal Hussein amongst others). He is a slow starter, but methodical in his boxing, building the pressure as the fight goes on. It is unlikely that he can knock out Pacquiao with one punch, but if he lands consistently, he could out score and out hustle the younger fighter. Larios is very crafty, and Pacquiao has had problems with thinking fighter who can deal with his speed and power (Morales and Marquez for example).
However, the ‘Pac Man’ is coming off the most spectacular win of his career, knocking out the un-knock-outable Erik Morales. His confidence should be soaring, and combined with his usual tenacity, he will be an extremely difficult foe to beat.
Most likely, Pacquiao will come out fast and furious, looking to take the taller man out early. Once his hands get going, Larios will have enormous difficulty staving off the quick fisted Filipino.
Despite his toughness, Larios has probably never tasted power quite like the Pac Mans, and he will be hard pressed to come back with anything to prevent the attacks. Larios has a very long torso, and he will need to protect this with his jab, which probably won’t be fast enough to catch Pacquiao coming in. When Pacquiao gets in close, he will vary his combinations to confuse Larios, and the result should be the Mexican hitting the canvass fairly quickly.
Pacquiao 2nd round KO.
