MANILA, Philippines—Manny Pacquiao logged in his first four rounds of sparring Tuesday afternoon at the Wild Card Gym in Hollywood, slugging it out with a 5-foot-11 super welterweight who swore that he felt the Filipino champ’s speed and power.
The sparring started slow then became a punching battle that left Rashad Holloway shocked and awed, according to www.philboxing.com.
Holloway, who has a 9-1-0 record with five stoppages, was quoted as saying: “He is too fast and very strong. I felt those body shots.”
The 5-foot-6 WBC lightweight champion Pacquiao, who will take on Oscar De La Hoya at 147 pounds on Dec. 6, needed time before solving the long, pointed jabs thrown by Holloway, reported the country’s foremost boxing website.
As soon as he got the hang of it, Pacquiao, widely recognized as the best fighter pound for pound, engaged his sparmate in a furious slugfest, launching head and body combinations before pulling out just as quickly.
“Some of those that got through appeared to be power shots and they did not seem to bother the Pacman. Although, they may not be as strong as those expected to be delivered by De la Hoya, it seems that Pacquiao has the capacity to take and absorb blows from a super welterweight,” said the article.
The idea is to simulate the conditions atop the ring at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas where Pacquiao will attempt to neutralize De La Hoya’s four-inch edge in height, six-inch advantage in reach and cutting-edge skills that made him the richest and most famous boxer in the world.
Four more boxers are lined up to test Pacquiao’s mettle, including Felix Sturm, whom De La Hoya defeated for the WBO middleweight title in 2006.
Yet despite Pacquiao’s impressive showing, Golden Boy Promotions CEO Richard Schaefer has made a daring prediction in favor of his boss: “A brutal knockout.”
When asked by setantasports.com about his forecast, Schaefer said: “I actually think he will knock him out in a rather brutal fashion.”
But noted boxing author Gary Todd said Pacquiao will win by a late TKO.
“To win, he (Pacquiao) has to fight in the same aggressive, nonstop punching way, moving at angles, countering with blistering combinations all night long. Oscar will get tired. He stopped throwing punches in the (Floyd) Mayweather fight. Pacquiao has to be first and try to take his legs away. If he can, he will win by late TKO,” wrote Todd at the www.braggingrightscorner.com.
Still, Todd feels De La Hoya will be going into the fight fully equipped, with the help of maestro Ignacio “Nacho” Beristain and former world champion Daniel Zaragoza, who is expected to fill in the Golden Boy in terms of fighting a southpaw.
