Losing a lot of weight made Erik Morales come out of the Velocity Sports Performance Center in Los Angeles a better boxer and a better fighter.
Jorgen Person, who helped run an eight-week weight-reduction and conditioning program for the Mexican, expressed confidence that Morales will be in terrific shape by the time he climbs the ring on Saturday.
“We?ve done our job and he?s a better boxer now. We didn?t burn him out. We burned the fat and not the muscles.” Then he said it?s now all up to Morales. “It?s like if someone gives us a car, a Ferrari with 400 horses. You want a better suspension, then we give you better suspension. You want better handling, we give you better handling. You want more horses, we give you 600 horses. But we don?t run the race,” he said. * * * Manny Pacquiao went out for a quick 30-minute road work Thursday morning, and took it easy inside his two-bedroom suite by playing the guitar and watching Jet Li movie “Hero” on DVD. After lunch he went to the Thomas and Mack Center for the press conference, and then straight to the IBA Gym for a very light workout.
It was his last day at the gym. In two months, he logged a total of 156 rounds of sparring. Pacquiao will just go out for a walk Friday, and will take very little food before the official weigh-in set at 2:30 p.m. * * * Merchandise for the fight billed as “Grand Finale” are finally out. The hottest item, of course, are the t-shirts going for $25 each. There are caps at $20, bonnets at $20, sweat shirts at $50, gloves at $30, huge fight posters at $25, souvenir programs of all three fights at $75, and placement rags the size of a single bed at $75. Some enterprising individuals, however, are making money selling bootleg items. But they?re really not that bad with t-shirts selling at $8 to $12 each. * * * The Grand Finale card is expected to set an attendance record at the 17,000-seat Thomas and Mack Center inside the UNLV campus. Previous boxing matches that have packed the venue were the Lennox Lewis-Evander Holifield bout (17,000) and the Hector Camacho-Julio Cesar Chavez fight (19,000). Promoter Bob Arum explained how promoter Don King put 19,000 people in a venue that has a capacity of 17,000. “What he did was he sold 2,000 standing room only (SRO) tickets,” said Arum. “But we at Top Rank are different. We have more respect to the fans,” he said.
