THE FIRST thing that Freddie Roach will do in the coming days is look for a videotape of Jorge Solis, the unbeaten and highly-rated Mexican featherweight who has been penciled to face Manny Pacquiao on April 21 in San Antonio, Texas.
“I have never heard of him,” Roach told the Bulletin from his Wild Card Boxing Club in Hollywood, California, yesteday. “I am going to look for a tape of this guy and I want to know his (fighting) style.”
“I don?t know him, but he?s got a good record, though,” said Roach.
Finding a videotape of Solis and getting one won?t be difficult since Solis, a 27-year-old right-hander from Guadalajara, has fought a total of 11 times on US soil. Last Jan. 25, he won by fifth round knockout over Fernando Lizarraga at the Orleans Hotel in Las Vegas.
Solis was tapped by Top Rank to square off with Pacquiao at the Alamodome and, on paper, the Mexican is as menacing as hell.
A professional since Feb. 1998, Solis is a holder of a 32-0-2 win-loss-draw slate with 23 knockouts and ranked No. 2 in the 126-lb category by the World Boxing Council.
Pacquiao, 28, holds a 43-3-2 ledger with 34 knockouts, and is widely regarded as the best fighter in the world today regardless of weight.
Roach, meanwhile, gets the chance to engage Pacquiao in a heart-to-heart talk sometime in the next two weeks since he will be in the country to work the corner of Rey ?Boom Boom? Bautista and Z Gorres in Cebu on Feb. 24.
“I am looking forward to seeing him there so we could talk,” added Roach, who will be away for two months in San Juan, Puerto Rico, to exclusively train Oscar dela Hoya.
By the time Pacquiao reports for training at the Wild Card late this month or in early-March, Roach will either be packing his bags or already working out with dela Hoya at a training facility in scenic San Juan owned by Wilfredo ?Bazooka? Gomez, the legendary Puerto Rican puncher.
