SPEED versus timing.
These will be the major factors when Pinoy ring icon and former eight-division champion Manny Pacquiao challenges American World Boxing Council welterweight king Mario Barrios on July 19 (July 20 in Manila) at the famed MGM Grand Arena in Las Vegas.
“Remember, in boxing, speed is the key,” Pacquiao told Ring Magazine writer Manouk Akopyan in a story posted on the revered American boxing publication yesterday while working out at the Wild Card Gym in Hollywood.
“I’m faster than Barrios. My movement and speed are still there. It was good for my body to rest for four years. I still have the passion and fire in my eyes. I am working hard. It’s still there,” said Pacquiao, 46, who is coming out of a four-year layoff to pursue fame and glory anew against his taller and younger rival.
“My family has been very supportive,” he added. “They saw my speed, my power, my body conditioning. I’m in good health. God is good all the time. Without God, I am nothing. I am here because of God’s mercy and strength.”
Keen on beating the six-foot Barrios, 30, the popular Filipino fighter said this is why he is redoubling his efforts in training.
“The dangers are when you get lazy in training,” Pacquiao said.
“The danger is when you’re not 100% conditioned when you go into the fight. That’s not healthy, not passion. I’m not going to be like other fighters who came back at 50% just to come back. I’m going to be at 100% like I did before, and whatever happens…” he stressed.
“My trainers are not pushing me in this training camp. But they are watching me to tell me to ‘stop, that’s enough.’ But for me, I want more,” said the Pacman, who has a record of 62 wins, 39 by knockout, against eight losses and two draws.
Barrios, who has won 29 of his 32 bouts (18 KOs) against two defeats and one draw, is not only banking on his youth and height but also on his reputed timing to beat his celebrated foe.
“Timing always beats speed, and I have great timing. I have fast hands and fast feet, too, I just choose not to use them all the time … it’s kill or be killed in there. I am going in there with bad intentions, trying to get him (Pacquiao) out of there,” he boasted.
“I’m ready to get a s—load of backlash if I retire him,” Barrios was quoted as saying in the event he deals Pacquiao a humbling defeat in his comeback fight.
Timing was what Mexican boxing legend Juan Manuel Marquez used in beating the unsuspecting Pacquiao on Dec. 8, 2012 at the same arena, slipping a picture-perfect right counter punch that knocked the daylights out of his rival in the sixth round.
Akopyan observed that “while Pacquiao works out, pictures of Ali, Leonard, De La Hoya, and every icon imaginable are plastered around the walls of Wild Card. Their faces are a reminder that none got a gold watch as a retirement gift – they got a beating.”
But he also noted that “there is a sign directly above the ring that reads: ‘You gotta have balls to conquer the world,’’’ and another sign that said, “It ain’t easy.”
“Both messages are true for Pacquiao as he plans to take a passage from Ali’s playbook to prove that he can still float like a butterfly, sting like a bee, and Barrios’ hands can’t hit what the eyes can’t see,” the writer concluded.
