Quality sparmates toughen up Pacquiao

GRAPEVINE, TEXAS—If the quality of sparmates were the gauge, Manny Pacquiao holds a huge edge over Antonio  Margarito. Pacquiao, through chief trainer Freddie Roach, was able to bring Glen Tapia and Michael Medina to Baguio City in the early part of his training camp. Then Roach added WBA junior welterweight champion Amir Khan to the equation after noticing that Pacquiao slowed down a bit while slugging it out against rising stars Tapia (8-0, 5KOs) and Medina (24-2-2, 18KOs), who are both light middleweights. Khan, who was able to infuse speed back into Pacquiao’s arsenal, holds a 23-0-1 record with 17 knockouts.
With Pacquiao back in form, Roach found little need to get bigger sparmates and instead hired David Rodela Rashad Holloway and Ray Beltran. Though Margarito’s sparmates —Cleofis Pendarvis (10-3-2, 4 KOs), Ricardo Williams (16-2, 9 KOs), Austin Tour (21-0, 13 KOs) and KC Martinez (2-0)—are a good lot, none of them is really capable of imitating Pacquiao’s style or matching his whirlwind speed. Photo by Associated Press