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Saturday, January 07, 2006
Gloves brand ‘won’t matter’
Whatever brand of gloves Manny Pacquiao wears in his rematch with Mexican ring legend Erik Morales two weeks from now, it won’t make much of a difference. At least, that’s how Morales sees it.
“Frankly, the gloves are a side issue. The thing is to be physically ready for the fight. The fight is about throwing the most leather and it doesn’t matter what kind of gloves you are wearing,” Morales told Seconds.Out.com.
The Mexican is set to take on the Filipino knockout artist on Jan. 22 at Las Vegas’ Thomas and Mack Center.
Pep talk
“I think he’s giving himself a pep talk by bringing up all the issues from the first fight. I am well prepared. The issue is to be ready to fight. He wears the gloves he wants and I wear the gloves I want and the issue in this fight is to be totally prepared to win the fight.”
Morales (48-3-0, 34 KOs) won via unanimous decision over Pacquiao (40-3-2, 32 KOs) in their first duel last May.
After the setback, Pacquiao’s camp publicly blamed the loss on Pacman’s less-than-ideal training regimen (Pacman’s training sessions were reportedly swarmed by the public all the time), the mental stress brought about by Pacman’s rift with promoter his promoter, Murad Muhammad, and on the type of gloves he wore during the fight.
‘Like pillows’
Pacquiao claimed that the brand of gloves he fought with – Winning brand of gloves – stilted his performance. Pacquiao’s renowned trainer, Freddie Roach, even said that the gloves were “like pillows.”
The hard-punching Pacquiao, who is used to fighting with the thin-padded Cleto Reyes mitts all his life, was forced to wear the Winning brand because it was stated in the contract that both fighters use the Winning brand. It was not unusual for the Morales camp to push for such a contract, since the thicker-padded Winning brand lessens the chances of Morales injuring his fragile fists.
The ironic part of the story was that Pacquiao, under Nevada State Athletic Commission, could have used a different brand of gloves during the fight had his management team lobbied for it, but the gloves aspect was fatally overlooked by his manager Muhammad Muhammad. As a result, Pacquiao fought Morales using the Winning brand. In his upcoming clash with Morales, however, Pacquiao will now be wearing the Reyes gloves.
“I think it’s about feeling psychologically better the issue of wearing the other gloves and it helps him feel like he’s a harder puncher. If he thinks the gloves make him a harder puncher than that’s fine,” said Morales, who is reportedly training with the Reyes brand.
I have knocked out fighters with both kinds of gloves. Every time I wear Reyes gloves, I hurt my hands. They just don’t fit my hands for some reason. I have been using Winning, Reyes and Boxero gloves, which are a Mexican glove, in training, but, using all three means wrapping my hands differently every time I change the gloves so that’s a bit of a pain during training.” (GCM)
For Bisaya stories from Cebu. Click here. (January 7, 2006 issue)
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