Manny Pacquiao lands on the front cover of an emerging American boxing magazine while the handlers of his Mexican nemesis, Erik Morales, continue to cover all the boxer’s bases.
These were the latest developments Friday involving the two proud and brave ring warriors set to slug it out in a much-awaited November 18 rubber match at the Thomas and Mack Center in Las Vegas, Nevada.
Just cited by President Arroyo at her State of the Nation Address, “PacMan’s” menacing figure was on the cover of the latest issue of Primer Round magazine, a publication based in San, Jose California, a boxing website reported.
The magazine’s cover title in Spanish describes Pacquiao as “Cazador Al Acecho”—”a hunter waiting in ambush” in English. The title likely alludes to the way the Filipino fighter has “ambushed” Mexican foes such as Morales, Marco Antonio Barrera and Oscar Larios, his latest conquest.
The magazine ran stories of Pacquiao in both English and Spanish.
Mario Serrano, the magazine’s publicist, said it caters to the Latino community, has a circulation of 10,000 copies and is distributed in over 600 supermarkets in California and Mexico. Primer Round made its debut in May, he added.
On the other hand, American promoter Bob Arum, who has a promotional contract with Morales, is not taking any chances.
The Top Rank honcho has ordered “El Terrible” to do two months of preparatory training at the hi-tech Velocity Training Center in Los Angeles, the San Diego Union-Tribune newspaper website said.
Arum said he insisted on Morales going to the training facility because he lost steam in his last two fights.
“Morales won’t go to training camp before he has been there [in Los Angeles] for two months,” said Arum.
He added that the pride of Tijuana, Mexico was “tremendously enthusiastic” about what he has accomplished under John Park, who operates the fitness center.
After Pacquiao knocked him out in the 10th round for the first time in his career the last time they met on January 21, Morales also gathered a collection of fitness and nutrition experts to ensure he makes the 130-pound weight limit for the deciding bout.
Morales complained that his cramming efforts to meet the weight took their toll the last time, resulting in the worst beating in his career.
