MANILA, Philippines – When Ricky Hatton climbs the ring on May 2, he will be up against a Manny Pacquiao who’s a lot better than the pound for pound king who pummeled legend Oscar De La Hoya to submission.
Thus said Top Rank boss Bob Arum, very much impressed with the Filipino superstar’s tremendous improvement at his training camp for the Hatton fight.
“I’ve never seen a better Manny Pacquiao," Arum said Saturday, when he graced the official weigh-in for “The Flash and the Furious" double championship fight featuring IBF-IBO flyweight king Nonito Donaire, Jr. and lightflyweight contender Brian Viloria.
“He improves from fight to fight which to me demonstrates that we have a fighter who’s still not yet at his peak. What usually happens is that fighters, they reach a particular peak before they hit a plateau and decline. But Manny hasn’t peaked yet so it’s all coming right. Believe me, the Manny Pacquiao that will be in the ring against Ricky Hatton is a better fighter than the one that went in the ring against Oscar De La Hoya," he added.
Giving Arum the reasons to be go gaga over Pacquiao’s improving skills are satisfying reports on how the 30-year-old bomber from General Santos City unleashes his lightning-fast fists and how he tackles younger, aggressive sparmates with so much ease.
“He’s faster, he’s smarter, he has all the adjectives. My guys who watched the training of the De La Hoya fight, watched the training for (Juan Manuel) Marquez fight, they came back and said ‘my God, you now can’t see his hands. He’s so fast, he’s throwing so quickly you can’t see the punches," Arum reported.
The veteran promoter took special notice of Pacquiao’s performance in sparring against knockout artist Mike Alavarado (25-0-0, 18 KOs), a rugger super-lightweight prospect, and welterweight Raymund Serrano (9-0-0, 5 KOs).
“Manny is now at the point where he can take on anybody in the world," he said. “Alvarado is gonna be a champion and Serrano is a tough, tough Puerto Rican and yet he (Pacquiao) is handling them like babies!"
So against Hatton, Arum expects Pacquiao to capitalize on his advantages, specifically his vaunted speed.
“If he fights according to script, capitalizes on his strength – speed - there’s no way that Hatton can beat him," he said.
Unlike trainer Freddie Roach, though, Arum refused to issue a prediction on how Pacquiao will finish off Hatton, the Ring Magazine and IBO junior welterweight champion.
Source: gmanews.tv
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