Sunday, April 15, 2007 Mexican fails to make 130-pound limit in first try
SAN ANTONIO - Pre-game distractions are a common obstacle to championships. Then there’s the world of Manny Pacquiao. His world is brimming with out-of-the-ring activity as he mounts the latest defense of his WBC international super featherweight title against undefeated—yet unheralded—Jorge Solis. It’s scheduled for 12 rounds Saturday (today, RP time).
Pacquiao (43-2-3, 33 KOs) has had to contend with his own congressional campaign at home in the Philippine elections next month, and a battle between promoters Bob Arum and Oscar dela Hoya in this country that has included court action seeking to stop the fight.
And that doesn’t mention his trainer of the past four years, Freddie Roach, left him to prepare dela Hoya for the May 5 fight against Floyd Mayweather Jr.
None of this bothers Pacquiao, he says.
“Never. I never let distractions get in the way of my training,” Pacquiao said. “My focus has been to train hard and concentrate for this fight.
“I have a lot of people in the Philippines who know how to work my campaign while I’m away.”
Meanwhile, Solis struggled to make the 130-pound limit during yesterday’s official weigh-in.
Unlike Solis, Pacquiao scaled in at 128.5 lbs, a pound and a half under the required weight.
The unheralded Solis checked in initially at 130.5 pounds and had to strip to his underwear. However, he still failed to make the limit and needed to workout to shed the extra weight, while Pacquiao started to devour the food deprived of him for a day.
It took almost an hour for Solis to tip in at exactly 130 pounds.
It was unlikely for a featherweight like Solis to miss the super featherweight limit as he needed to add four pounds to fight the 130-pounder Pacquiao.
Solis’ brother, the IBF light flyweight champion Ulises, was not happy with how Jorge needed to sweat it out to make the weight limit. (RCM With AP)
