WITH the arrival of strength and conditioning coach Justine Fortune last Friday, Manny Pacquiao’s training shifted to higher gear as he prepares for his fight opposite WBA champion Lucas Matthysse on July 15.
Pacquiao, also the promoter of the mega-fight, dispelled rumors that there might be a possibility of a postponement of this match.
“We are shifting our training to higher gear now with less than two months before the fight,” said Pacquiao, who, like Matthysse, is deep in training for their clash in the posh Axiata Arena in Kuala Lumpur.
Pacquiao denied reports that the fight, dubbed as the “Fight of Champions,” will be postponed.
“That is malicious and untrue,” said Pacquiao, referring to the published reports that his inaugural promotional show under the MP Promotions banner will be postponed. Calling the persons involved as “saboteurs,” Pacquiao said he is serious about winning this fight as he knows that Matthysse is also hoping to force his retirement from boxing.
“Ironically, I would like to thank these rumor-mongers for the extra publicity that they are contributing to make this fight such a huge success. I am turning this negative news into something good because no news is actually bad news,” added Pacquiao.
Pacquiao hopes his fight with Matthysse will equal, if not surpass, the “Fight of a Lifetime” duel between Muhammad Ali and Joe Bugner in Malaysia in 1975.
“Given the wrong versions of the postponement of Pacquiao-Matthysse, such as the news that we retweeted, Arano Box clarifies that the fight has no problem and the date remains unchanged,” said Matthysse’s manager Mario Arano on Twitter, after Argentine TV network TyC Sports reported that the fight was headed toward postponement. (PR)