MANILA, Philippines– Manny Pacquiao is still amazed that he’s been installed as the overwhelming favorite against Ricky Hatton in their light-welterweight showdown next week at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, Nevada.
Pacquiao reasons out that everything should be even going into the 12-round bout since like him, Hatton is a known slugger with a good pair of punching hands.
“Ang laki ng tiwala ng mga tao sa akin, eh parehas lang naman kami ni Hatton," he said while cooling down from his sparring session Saturday (Sunday in Manila). “Kumbaga sa sabong, may tari ako, may tari din siya. Pareho lang din naman kaming may gaffer."
Latest odds still had the pound-for-pound king a -285 favorite, meaning a $285 bet would only result in a $100 win. Hatton on the other hand, is +185, meaning a $100 bet would earn $185.
Pacquiao sparred for five rounds Saturday (Sunday in Manila) at the Wild Card gym, the last of two sparring sessions left in his eight-week training camp.
He did three rounds with Uzbek Alisher Rahimov and two with David Rodella to rack up at 145 the total sparring he had so far. By Monday, he’ll spar four more rounds before heading to Las Vegas later in the afternoon.
Despite not having Freddie Roach around, Pacquiao was still intense in training under the watchful eyes of assistant trainers Michael Moorer and Buboy Fernandez along with conditioning coach Alex Ariza.
Shadow boxing, working on the speed ball and double-end bag and doing abdominal crunches, Pacquiao later on gamely posed for the small crowd inside the gym to show his well-chiseled body as cameras clicked away and TV videos rolled on.
Then as he flexed his muscles, he asked Manila-based reporters, “Maliit ba ako sa 140?" obviously referring to the notion of others that Hatton will come in as the bigger fighter come fight night.
Later on when he was working at the medicine ball, he asked assistant Nonoy Neri to hit him hard with the thing at both sides of the body.
“Kailangan nating patibayin ito (midsection) dahil dito madiskarte si Hatton," he explained, noting the Manchester, England native’s penchant to throw powerful single shots to the side of the body, the kind that knocked off the likes of Juan Collazo and Jose Luis Castillo.
Source: gmanews.tv
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