Punching machine Manny Pacquiao returns to his home of The Philippines this coming Saturday when he takes on the former WBC super bantamweight champion Oscar Larios, at the Araneta Coliseum, in Manila. Having taken on the finest of Mexico, in fights against Marco Antonio Barrera, Juan Manuel Marquez and Erik Morales (twice), Manny ? a world champion at flyweight, super bantam and featherweight – is taking on another big gun.
Larios, of Guadalajara, Mexico, is tall, hits hard, and boasts incredible fitness when at his best. But despite being a dangerous foe, Larios is ? and should be ? considered a level below the peerless trio that Manny has waged war against. Even at his best, Oscar, 29, is considered a ?windmill puncher?, whose tendency to swing and loop his shots reduces his accuracy and power.
Known for a string of exciting, if scrappy, world title performances on ESPN2 against Israel Vasquez (their second fight, with Larios wining via late TKO) and Willie Jorrin (Larios dropping a controversial decision and winning the rematch by stoppage), fights that featured many missed punches, Oscar cannot quite be considered among the elite that ?Pac Man? has attempted to gobble up but will be hungry to make his mark at the highest level.
Coming off a career best win over Erik Morales, a revenge fight that brought along the first stoppage of ‘Terible’s’ great career, Pacquiao, 27, could be in another position to make a quality foe feel old and battered. Larios (56-4-1, 36 KOs) looked frayed in his rubber match against Israel Vasquez last December, finishing up with one win and two losses against his bitter rival, after being dropped and cut up in three one sided frames.
It was an upset win that propelled Vasquez to the top of the 122-pound weight class, and sent Larios packing for the bigger super featherweight division, where all the marquee fighters (Pacquiao, Barrera, and Morales) of the lighter divisions are currently camping.
If Larios also struggled with the pace in his two battles with Wayne McCullough, he can be forgiven somewhat considering that they were true punch marathons, and Oscar did what nobody else could do in the second bout by stopping McCullough, who was shipping too many flush shots. Indeed, too much could have been made of the Vasquez loss. The punch that caused Oscar?s cut was a dubious one that may have been aggravated by the inside of the glove. Interestingly, Vasquez? subsequent fight, a couple of weeks ago, against Ivan Hernandez was also cut short ? this time by a clash of heads.
In addition, Larios has been struggling to get his scrawny frame down to 122-pounds for a while. He had that jaded look about him before the opening bell, and Vasquez? uncharacteristically quick start, combined with the cuts, maybe exaggerated the decline of Larios, who looked glad to be pulled out. Vaulting up to 130-pounds, and with potential big fights on the horizon, I expect Larios to be stronger and to have a renewed sense of purpose and ambition. Manny (41-3-2, 46 KOs) can look forward to a third fight with Morales. The incentive for Larios, meanwhile, is that a win will earn him the right to keep fighting against superstars, an exalted position indeed for the Mexican.
Whilst Larios could prove to be better than expected, Manny has the problem of training (for the last couple of weeks) in his home country, and fighting before his home fans, who adore him. Given the fuss that was made of allowing Manny?s Pinoy fans watch him train at Freddy Roach?s Wild Card gym in Hollywood prior to the first Morales fight (a points loss), one wonders how circumstances will affect his preparation prior to the fight and his focus during the fight with Larios.
Pacquiao reminds me ? in essence ? of the brilliant WBC flyweight champion of the late ?80s and early ?90s, Sot Chitalada. Sot?s trainer Charlie Atkinson tried to make his charge to in the docklands of Liverpool for his 1989 comeback fight against Yong Kang Kim, to keep him from hangers on, in vain. When Sot promptly departed to his base in Thailand, where he was a huge star, and knocked around with fellow celebrities, Atkinson rightly departed. The fight was one of Chitalada?s most important, but he was pedestrian during the fight, barely winning on points.
I don?t want to push the comparison too far, but all of this raises the concern of whether Manny will be as fit and technically honed as he can be. Will the relentless southpaw be too eager to please, and run into big shots? In the first Morales bout, and the epic waged against Marquez, Manny was outboxed for long stretches and could have lost both quite widely were it not for a brilliant twelfth round assault against the former and a huge opening round against the latter, whom he dropped three times. Larios can?t box anywhere near the level of Marquez, but he knows plenty, having made seven defenses of his old WBC 122-pound crown. Wins over Jorrin and Vasquez can?t be scoffed at, but one wonders whether that?s as far as he can go.
If the impression is that Larios stayed at super bantamweight for too long, it cannot be forgotten that Manny began his career in the flyweight division and gradually ascended the weight classes. Probably a natural super bantamweight (where he reigned as IBF champion from 2001 to 2003, with four defenses), where he possessed a more irresistible balance of speed and power, Pacquiao is a couple of inches shorter and much smaller-framed than his foe.
Although naturally smaller, Manny is in his physical prime, and has never looked more devastating than when he ground down Morales early this year. His combination of work rate and variety should be too much for a man whose size and strength may surprise him. If he applies a disciplined and varied array of right hooks, straight lefts and body shots, he should fluster and break down Larios, whether he be refreshed from the seven month layoff or simply frayed from a hard career. After all, if Larios could barely keep McCullough off him for 22 rounds, how can he keep the fresher, more powerful, simmering Filipino off him for twelve rounds?
Given that Pacquiao actually reigned at 122-pounds, I can?t help thinking this fight was made three or four years too late for Larios. But I’ll reserve my judgement until I see how the solid Mexican looks at his new weight class. Which makes Oscar a bit of a Wild Card himself.
