Relevance pumped into Pacquiao bout

SEN. Manny Pacquiao was scheduled to leave Wednesday night for Beverly Hills, California, to link up with WBO welterweight champion Jessie Vargas in a press conference scheduled on Friday. The affair can only be expected to help push sales for the Pacquiao-Vargas title bout scheduled in Las Vegas on Nov. 5.

Pacquiao said he hopes to return on Sunday to resume his work in the Senate and continue training for the Vargas assignment.

“I’m not underestimating Vargas, the reason I’m following my training schedule properly,” Pacquiao told the Manila Times.

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Pacquiao, who started light training last week, said he runs in the morning before going to work in the Senate. He goes to do gym work in the afternoon.

His handlers said Pacquiao has started to regain speed and power, adding the preparations for Vargas would go full-blast upon the scheduled arrival of chief trainer Freddie Roach next month.

For the record, Top Rank Inc., after announcing Pacquiao would un-retire following a four-month furlough, had thought of pairing the newly minted Philippine senator against the unbeaten unified world light welterweight champion Terence Crawford of Omaha.

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As his busy schedule in the Senate would not allow Pacquiao to sustain proper preparations for a major fight, a consensus was reached to have him fight Vargas instead.

The Nov. 5 championship was however initially regarded as irrelevant (for Pacquiao) in most boxing circles.

Vargas, in fact, yesterday continued to be an awful 10-1 underdog among book makers around Las Vegas.

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Anyway, in a lively turn, international promoter Bob Arum announced that WBO superbantamweight champion Nonito Donaire Jr. would be seeing action in the Nov. 5 card.

Of course, that bout cannot be regarded as mere added attraction, considering Donaire has been pitted against the sensational Mexican warrior Jessie Magdaleno, 23-0-0, 17 KOs.

The Donaire-Magdaleno title bout, with its significance, could only be expected to be drum-beat as a companion main event to the Pacquiao-Vargas title bout.

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Anyway, Vargas himself has not been very pleased at the way his title defense against Pacquiao was being sneered at by pundits and plain fans.

Cried Vargas: “The first time I touch him, Pacquiao is going to respect me.”

“My power, no doubt, will hold him off and make him think twice about merely coming in and imposing his will. Other than power, I have speed and ring intelligence, too. I can be the ring general with my jab and footwork,” Vargas explained.

Vargas said he considers Pacquiao as “just another fighter.”