Manny Pacquiao with trainer Buboy Fernandez during his Thursday training at Wild Card Gym in Los Angeles. Wendell Alinea/MP Promotions
HOLLYWOOD—Seven years ago, Juan Manuel Marquez laid out the blueprint to beating Manny Pacquiao when the Mexican boxing great knocked out the Filipino ring legend with only a second left in the sixth round of their fourth fight.
Since then, Pacquiao’s opponents have tried to do replicate Marquez’s well-timed overhand punch that sent the eight-division champion flat on his face.
Keith Thurman is no exception.
Buboy Fernandez, Pacquiao’s chief trainer, said “leaked videos” of Thurman show the undefeated American trying to duplicate Marquez’s punch in his training sessions.
“The leaked videos I saw showed Thurman’s camp continuously trying to do what Marquez did,” Fernandez said in Filipino. “Every day they were trying to do it.”
Wary of history repeating itself on July 20 when Pacquiao and Thurman meet in the ring in a welterweight title unification fight in Las Vegas, Fernandez has something up in his sleeve to avoid that possibility.
“We can’t afford to be careless. I’ve analyzed the situation that when we throw the left, we have to be cautious and immediately go out,” he said.
“We should expect a punch from out of nowhere 100 percent of the time that’s why we need to step away as fast as we can because that kind of punch is what they will use as a weapon.”
Fernandez sees Pacquiao having no problems against Thurman is their plan is executed to perfection.
Thurman, on the other hand, would be in a lot of trouble.
“If we hit him, don’t go for the kill right away. Zigzag your way to the right because Thurman won’t be able to turn. We can’t just go straight because we might end up going towards a punch,” he said.
“He (Thurman) will get hit with a 10.5 intensity straight.”