Thursday, November 13, 2008 Pacquiao, De La Hoya on equal footing : Beristain
A LOT of boxing experts believe that the legendary “Golden Boy” Oscar De La Hoya has the edge over Filipino ring superstar Manny “Pacman” Pacquiao on their Dec. 6 mega match at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas but De La Hoya’s trainer himself thinks otherwise.
Experts say De La Hoya’s height and reach advantage will work greatly for him.
However, famed Mexican boxing trainer Igancio “Nacho” Beristain thinks differently.
Beristain, who was hired by De La Hoya after the departure of longtime trainer Floyd Mayweather Sr., feels that the size difference is not a factor in this fight because Pacquiao has his advantages himself.
Advantage
“I can tell you that the advantages that many people are talking about are not precise such as the weight, the size, the power punch. The fight is going to come even since Manny Pacquiao is a very powerful fighter and he is a southpaw so those advantages are going to put both fighters on equal footing on the night of the fight. Everybody knows that fighting a southpaw is very hard and fighting Manny Pacquiao makes it a little bit harder,” said Beristain in a report posted at Philboxing.com.
De La Hoya picked Beristain to be his coach for this fight because Mayweather Sr. was training British brawler Ricky “The Hitman” Hatton for his title fight against International Boxing Federation light welterweight champion Paul Malignaggi on Nov. 22.
Game plan
Meanwhile, Roach’s game plan against De La Hoya is to wear him out and fight in close range to avoid his devastating jabs.
“We’re going to step it up from round one and make this guy fight. Oscar gets tired in slow-paced fights, and we are going to push him and push him and push him,” said Roach in a report posted at Fightfan.com.
“Oscar’s advantage is his jab and we have to get past it. That’s not a secret in the match up and I’m not going to pretend it
is. We want to fight at close range and that’s our goal and our job,” Roach said.
The former Olympic gold medalist has had his troubles in the past against southpaws like Pernel Whitaker and Hector “Macho” Camacho though he won both via unanimous decisions.
Roach explained that they are going to maintain Pacquiao’s weight at 150 pounds because they don’t want him to get too heavy because it might diminish his main arsenal–his speed.
Speed
“We’re just going with his natural ability and speed. The thing is, a lot of people have put on weight on with weight–lifting and that takes away speed and speed is what’s going to win us the fight,” told Roach.
On the other hand, it was reported that De La Hoya tapped the services of knockout artist Edwin Valero to simulate Pac–quiao. But Roach thinks that Valero can’t mimic the 29-year old Filipino world champion because he doesn’t possess the speed.
“Valero’s probably nothing like Manny Pacquiao. He punches hard but he’s slow as molasses. And I think they got the wrong guy,”Roach said. (EKA)
