THERE will only be one Manny Pacquiao.
But this won’t stop rising undefeated bantamweight fighter Kenneth Llover from tracing the footsteps of the celebrated Filipino boxing star in his path to ring fame and glory.
A southpaw like his compatriot and role model and after two straight highly successful stints in Japan, Llover, 22, will finally get to treat the hometown crowd to a glimpse of his growing greatness when he battles veteran Panamanian fighter Luis Concepcion on Sunday at the Winford Manila Resort Hotel.
It will be a non-title bout set for 10 rounds, nearly five months after Llover wrested the Orient Pacific bantamweight belt from Japanese Keita Kurihara with a stunning knockout win just 27 seconds into the first round last March 24 at the renowned Korakuen Hall in Tokyo, Japan.
With an unblemished record of 14 wins, nine by knockout, he will be gunning for another impressive victory at the expense of Concepcion, 39, a former two-time world champion, who last fought slightly over two years ago.
The diminutive Panamanian has a record of 40 wins (29 KOs) and five losses, the last one by an eighth-round TKO at the hands of Mexican David Cuellar Contreras in a bantamweight match scheduled for 10 rounds on Oct. 13, 2023 in Cancun, Mexico.
Not wanting to be cannon fodder and a mere stepping stone for his youthful Filipino foe, Concepcion and his party arrived over the weekend to train and acclimatize to the Philippine weather in the hope of giving Llover a worthy challenge.
Handled by Gerry Peñalosa, himself a former two-time world champion in both the junior bantamweight and bantamweight divisions, Llover has hooked up with now Manila-based American strength and conditioning coach Alex Ariza, who sees some similarities between him and Pacquiao.
“Obviously, you can see the Pacquiao influence on him (Llover) – the movement, the speed, he’s got great power,” Ariza, who was once in the corner of Pacman and also had stints with Floyd Mayweather Jr. and Amir Khan, said.
But the famous – some say controversial – trainer acknowledged that while Llover is good, he’s still young and he’s raw. He’s just a kid with no amateur background. Not one fight in the amateurs.
“Yeah, it is going to be a (tough) road ahead of us, but definitely there is a lot of potential there.”
Working in the dynamic boxer’s favor, Ariza added, was that “he (Llover) has that ‘it’ thing. Obviously, a lot of people are drawn to him. They like his style; it’s a fan-favorite style.”
He paid tribute to his new ward’s work ethic, saying: “He doesn’t complain about anything. He doesn’t mind getting up early. He doesn’t mind what we feed him. It’s the same way we started with Manny when we started moving him up (in the weight divisions).”
Ariza disclosed that Peñalosa has also tapped the services of American dietitian Teri Tom, who was also once the nutritionist of Pacquiao, Khan and NBA players Andrew Bynum and Ronny Tauriaf, to look after Llover’s nutritional needs.
He added that the goal was to prime the Pinoy “Lover Boy” to win three straight fights before getting a crack at a world championship in the crowded bantamweight division, starting with Concepcion on Sunday.
