INJIN CHI, the rugged Korean slugger being eyed to clash with Manny Pacquiao, is someone not to be taken for granted.
This was the belief of Pacquiao’s American trainer Freddie Roach, whose memory of Chi is that of a never-say-die fighter who gave Erik Morales a taste of hell when they fought almost five years ago at the Staples Center in Los Angeles.
“This is not an easy fight (for Pacquiao),” Roach said when told about serious plans of pitting Pacquiao with Chi, the reigning World Boxing Council (WBC) featherweight king, for April 28 at the Wynn Casino and Hotel in Macau.
“He is very tough,” said Roach, who is still in Manila for a San Miguel beer commercial and who would remain until next week for a three-day boxing clinic at the Body Works Gym on West Ave. in Quezon City.
Informed about Top Rank’s wish to stage the fight, Roach said he has raised the issue with Pacquiao and the dynamite-hitting Filipino lefty told his 46-year-old mentor that he would prepare for Chi or someone else at the Wild Card Boxing Club in Hollywood, California.
But before Pacquiao reports there, Roach said Pacquiao would have already done some work in his hometown of General Santos City.
Chi parades a 31-3-1 win-loss-draw card spiked with 18 knockouts. All his three losses were on points in his professional debut in 1991, against Morales in 2001 and versus Takashi Koshimoto of Japan last year when he surrendered the WBC 126-lb belt that he regained with a unanimous decision victory over Rudy Lopez of Mexico.
Lopez had won the title from Koshimoto.
Chi is trained by Jin-jil Kim and is managed by Kusung Lee, a friend of sportsman-lawyer Rudy Salud.
