Amir Khan spars with Manny Pacquiao

British welterweight champion Amir Khan has reportedly started sparring with Filipino boxing champion Manny Pacquiao in preparation for the two boxers’ upcoming fights later this year.

The 23-year-old Khan, who is in the country to share training sessions with Pacquiao under renowned American boxing tactician Freddie Roach, said over the weekend that he had seen marked improvement in his performance against the seven-division champion as compared to how he fared during their first meeting in 2008.

Amir Khan spars with Manny Pacquiao (PHOTOS)

“I sparred with him [Pacquiao] after a defeat two years ago. I did really well with him then, but this time I’ve done even better and it just shows how much I’ve come on since I’ve been training with Manny,” Khan said in an interview with East Side Boxing.

“It’s a 50-50 spar. You know we’re both learning. Some days I have a good day, but some days Manny has a good day. It’s just great to work with somebody like Manny because Manny is known as one of the best fighters in the world.”

Khan, who is set to defend his WBA welterweight belt against Argentine boxer Marcos Maidana in Las Vegas this December, has also expressed his readiness to fight Pacquiao if they could be pitted against each other in the near future.

“We are so close as friends now that it would be very difficult (to fight),” the British champion said as quoted by the Boxing Scene. “At the end of the day, boxing is business so anything can happen.”

Meanwhile, Top Rank CEO and hall of Fame promoter Bob Arum has sounded the alarm over Pacquiao’s so-so performance in sparring, which he saw firsthand during a recent visit to the Sarangani congressman’s training camp in Baguio City over the weekend.

“The old Pacquiao would have no problem beating Antonio Margarito. He still has time to bring the old Pacquiao back when he is in Los Angeles,” Arum said in an interview with Philboxing.com.

“When I watched Manny on Saturday, I didn’t see the kind of speed that he would need to beat Margarito,” Arum said. “If the fight happened on Saturday, Margarito would win.”

However, Pacquiao assured everybody that everything is going well in his camp and that he’ll be the in the best shape of his life come November 23 when he faces the biggest opponent in his career in Antonio Margarito.

“I’m 100-percent ready,” said Pacquiao, who eyes to achieve a historic feat as the only boxer to win eight titles in as many weight divisions in case he blows by Margarito. “The public has nothing to worry about since I’m feeling very good.”

Arum has also said that Pacquiao will likely fight twice next year as a welterweight anew, with quality boxers like Floyd Mayweather, Jr., Shane Mosley, Devon Alexander, Timothy Bradley, Andre Berto, Miguel Cotto, and even Juan Manuel Marquez eyed as possible opponents of the pound-for-pound champion.

Pacquiao Leaves for US on October 23

Seven-division world champion Manny Pacquiao will be leaving for United States on October 23 to continue his training at the famous Wild Card Gym in Hollywood. Pacquiao will train for one more week at the Shape Up Boxing Gym inside the Cooyeesan Hotel in Baguio City to complete the first phase of his training.

A Bunch of sports journalists from all over the country are expected to say good luck, God bless or even ask the Filipino ring icon Pacquiao to whip the ass of Mexican Antonio Margarito in Monday’s Media Day in his high-altitude training camp at Baguio.

Pacquiao along with Top Rank Promotion Chief Bob Arum, trainer Freddie Roach and conditioning coach Alex Ariza will be talking and sharing some moments with the national media at 1 p.m.

Arum, who will go back home on Wednesday, went to Baguio Saturday unaware of an impending typhoon (international codename Megi) that is expected to slash through Northern Luzon, including Baguio, on Monday.

Pacquiao is currently in the thick of training in the Philippines’ summer capital that is five-to-six hours from Manila by land for a November 13 showdown against Margarito at Cowboys Stadium in Arlington, Texas.

Arum, who arrived in Manila on Saturday, also said: “I am very excited to be there and see Manny, the rest of the team and the Filipino boxing fans.”

Roach cuts down sparring load for Manny Pacquiao

Freddie Roach is no longer pushing Manny Pacquiao as hard as he used to. In fact, Roach said he’d be cutting down on the number of sparring rounds as Pacquiao enters the last six weeks of training for his Nov. 13 showdown with Antonio Margarito in Arlington, Texas.

After six days in this cold City of Pines, Pacquiao has logged eight rounds of sparring – four with Glen Tapia last Thursday and another four with Michael Medina yesterday at the Shape Up Gym.

A couple more sparring partners, Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. and Vanes Martirosyan, both standing six feet, are coming in anytime.

Sparring should have started last Tuesday but Roach found no need and pushed it to Thursday.

“I decided it was too early to spar last Tuesday,” he said.

“You know last fight we had 160 rounds of sparring. We still have seven weeks here. I actually don’t want to get 160 rounds of sparring here. I don’t think he needs that anymore,” said Roach.

The magic number for the Margarito fight, a big one considering that the Mexican is more than six inches taller than the 5-foot-6 Pacquiao, could be just a little over a hundred.

“We’ll be shooting for a hundred to 110. Manny already has all the experience. I don’t want to burn him out,” said Roach.

But that may be so much easier said than done because Pacquiao is known for his boundless energy, and has this habit of always asking for more, whether with the mitts or sparring.

“Everything is still negotiable,” said Roach.

Pacquiao sparred four rounds with Medina yesterday, and for a couple of times had the fighter as tall as Margarito in deep trouble. After the session, he wore a few scratches on his face.

It was late in the third round when Pacquiao caught Medina with some solid shots, and the Mexican super-welterweight seemed ready to go. But he managed to hold on until the bell sounded.

Tapia was on standby, ready to be tapped, and Medina had already taken his protective gear off when Roach decided to give him one more round with the world’s hardest-hitting boxer.

“I’ve never sparred against a guy like Pacquiao,” Medina said later on, adding that he tried to pin the FIlipino icon on the ropes but just couldn’t because of his tremendous footwork.

“I just can’t,” said Medina.

Pacquiao Must Avoid Rival’s Trap

Freddie Roach wants Manny Pacquiao to turn Antonio Margarito into a virtual punching bag on Nov. 13 at Cowboys Stadium in Dallas.

In another sizzling session at the Shape Up Boxing Gym on Naguillan Road on Friday afternoon, Roach and Pacquiao continued to exchange notes on how to beat Margarito with the master emphasizing movement and the pupil acknowledging it.

“Don’t stay in front of him because he will hit you,” Roach told the Filipino pound-for pound king in between hitting the mitts.

Roach said Margarito will invite Pacquiao into a trap by giving him the green light to unleash combinations but Pacquiao has to be extra-careful after doing so because Margarito will counter as soon as he unloads.

Pacquiao did what he was told but the student added another dimension to the game plan, showing his teacher how to cleverly evade punches while hitting with pin-point accuracy.

“Good, Manny,” said Roach, whose accent is on preventing Margarito from loading as much as he possibly could.

“Don’t take two punches in order to land three,” said Roach, stressing that Pacquiao can easily win the scheduled 12-round fight for the vacant World Boxing Council super-welterweight crown without taking punishment from the Mexican mauler.

“Move, move away,” hollered Roach as Pacquiao wisely switched punching positions, spots where he could strike Margarito cleanly on the head and body.

“He will fall for you,” said Roach, assuring Pacquiao that the slow-footed Margarito will always find himself in an awkward position to be struck by one of Pacquiao’s power shots.

Pacquiao did a total of 13 rounds with the mitts, taking a break only after the 12th round.

Before reporting to the gym, Pacquiao did his morning roadwork in a rugged portion of a village located off the beaten path.

Since Pacquiao is scheduled to hold his second sparring session on Saturday, he will jog at Burnham Park.

Pacquiao actually went four rounds with Glen Tapia, a Dominican Republic native from New Jersey instead of Michael Medina and Medina said the session was intense and Tapia gave a good account of himself.

Poor basics will seal Margarito’s fate – Roach

After carefully studying Antonio Margarito’s fight tapes, trainer Freddie Roach pointed to poor fundamentals as a major drawback in the Mexican roughhouser’s style and said the other day his lack of ring generalship will make it easy for Manny Pacquiao to score a knockout in their 12-round bout for the WBC superwelterweight title at the Cowboys Stadium in Arlington, Texas, on Nov. 13.

“Margarito has no control of the ring,” noted Roach. “He has little foot movement. He doesn’t cut the ring off. Instead, he follows his opponent around. I don’t see sound fundamentals. His strong point is a good chin, a better chin than Ricky Hatton. But he quits – something he showed in the Sugar Shane Mosley fight.”

What makes Margarito dangerous is he’s got nothing to lose and everything to gain. And he’s desperate to straighten out his career tainted by a suspension stemming from a finding that his handwraps contained traces of sulfur and calcium to form a hardened plaster in the dressing room before the Mosley fight in January last year.

“If he wins (over Pacquiao), all of a sudden, he’s up there,” said Roach. “I think he got away with just a slap on the wrist for his loaded handwraps. The sentence was kind to him. Of course, he knew his handwraps were loaded. How could anyone not know he’s weighed down by a brick? Luis Resto and Panama Lewis served three years in prison and were banned for life when it was proved they conspired to pad handwraps in the Billy Collins fight. I’m assuming Margarito used loaded handwraps when he knocked out Miguel Cotto. Margarito came back from his suspension last May and is now fighting Manny – that’s getting off lightly.”

Because Margarito is known for his dirty tricks, Roach said it wouldn’t be smart for Pacquiao to stay on the ropes and invite the Mexican to bang away. Pacquiao used the rope-a-dope trick on Cotto who took the bait, abandoned his left jab and bore in only to absorb a brutal beating en route to a 12th round technical knockout loss in Las Vegas last year.

“Margarito’s an in between a Cotto and an Oscar de la Hoya,” said Roach. “Manny won’t fight him like he did Cotto. Margarito’s a dirty fighter. He’ll do whatever he can to win. He’ll throw low blows, butt and elbow. Manny’s watched tape, too. We compared notes about his habits and we observed the same things. We’ve talked about our gameplan and we’ll develop it as we go along in training camp.”

Roach said he has nothing against Margarito but didn’t appreciate his comments about Pacquiao during a recent press conference in Dallas.

“He likened his handwraps issue with (Floyd) Mayweather’s accusation of Manny taking performance enhancing drugs,” said Roach. “Wait a minute. Margarito got caught. Manny was accused but nothing was substantiated because he doesn’t do drugs. There’s a big difference between his issue and Manny’s. When I mentioned the Tijuana Tornado would get downgraded to a tropical storm, he stared me down.”

Roach said Margarito’s 4 1/2- inch height advantage doesn’t worry him.

“Size doesn’t win fights,” he explained. “Speed kills and Manny’s just too fast for Margarito. It’s easier to bring down a bigger guy than a smaller guy or someone who’s your size. Margarito’s not a mover. Besides, we still don’t really know if he can punch. I’ve talked to three guys who’ve sparred with him and they’re giving me different impressions. Rashad Holloway sparred with Margarito and broke his eye socket. One guy, Zavala, swore Margarito can’t punch after sparring with him but another guy, the Scottish kid Craig McEwan, told me he hits like a hammer. Whatever, we’ll be ready. Margarito is a volume puncher, he’s no Joshua Clottey. He’ll keep Manny busy.”

Roach said he expects the first four rounds to be explosive.

“We’ll see a very competitive first four rounds,” he said. “Margarito will come out attacking. Then, Manny will start breaking him down with his power and speed. He won’t be able to handle Manny’s speed. He’ll begin feeling Manny’s power and remember, he cuts easily. Manny will go on to beat him up badly. I think it’ll be over by the eighth round.”

Margarito, 32, is coming off a unanimous 10-round decision over Roberto Garcia for the vacant WBC International superwelterweight crown in Aguascalientes, Mexico, last May. Garcia was floored in the first round and was never in contention as the judges scored it 100-88, 99-90 and 99-89. Margarito’s record is 38-6, with 27 KOs compared to Pacquiao’s 51-3-2, with 38 KOs.

Pacquiao, 31, has won his last 12 fights, eight inside the distance, and hasn’t lost since dropping a decision to Erik Morales five years ago. If he beats Margarito, Pacquiao will set a new record by capturing his eighth world title in eight different divisions.

Pacquiao spotted training in Quezon City

It’s almost hard to believe how much intrigue a possible clash between Manny Pacquiao and Floyd Mayweather has lost in recent months. Floyd has seen his life spiral out of control in well-documented fashion while Pacquiao is now focusing on a November 13th date with Antonio Margarito in which he will challenge the Tijuana fighter for the vacant WBC junior middleweight championship of the world.

Pacquiao was recently spotted working out with trainer Freddie Roach at the Elorde Gym in Manila’s Quezon City in the Philippines. Having not seen his charge for roughly half a year, Roach came away pleased with his fighter’s mindset during their light training routine.

“We had a very good start,” Roach told GMANews. “We didn’t rest in between rounds. Manny already knows what to do with that guy (Margarito).”

Roach arrived with two of Pacquiao’s sparring mates, New Jersey-based prospect Glen Tapia and Michael Media, who were also present at the gym. The team will make their way to the mountains of Baguio City to begin full preparation either Wednesday or Thursday.

Recently while in Las Vegas, Top Rank promoter Bob Arum advised Roach that Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. would not be making the trip to the Philippines as expected. However in recent days it has been reported that the 24-year old Sinaloa, Mexico fighter will indeed be coming to camp, just a few weeks later than the rest of the crew.

As for the Las Vegas-based Mayweather, people are still up in arms over his recent struggles, including a Ustream tirade against Pacquiao as well the recent dilemma he faces after being charged with various counts of larceny and assault after the mother of three of his children, Josie Harris, claimed the fighter physically attacked her in front of his children on September 10th.

Pacquiao and Mayweather are obviously in different places right now in their lives and come mid-November we will have a better understanding of both of their futures. Mayweather’s court date is scheduled for November 9th while Pacquiao meets Margarito at Cowboys Stadium in Dallas, Texas just four days later.

Roach may have Pacquiao try to overwhelm Margarito with punches

Trainer Freddie Roach may have tipped his hand by giving a big hint about what Manny Pacquiao will do in his next fight with Antonio Margarito by saying “Manny will start fast with this guy, and we will finish him fast,” in an interview with the Telegraph.co.uk. In other words, Roach is going to have Pacquiao bum rush Margarito like he did Joshua Clottey, stand in front of him and try to overwhelm him with over 100 punches per round. It didn’t work against Clottey, though, because he blocked most of Pacquiao’s shots and the ones that got through had no effect on him.

Pacquiao ended up throwing over 1200 punches over the course of the 12 round bout, but he was just throwing them without aiming and not loading up on them. If Pacquiao fights this way against Margarito, he may be playing into Margarito’s major strength. He’s very good at throwing a massive amount of punches per round, and more than capable of throwing 100 punches per round over a 12 round bout. The difference here is that Margarito is still able to aim his shots and throw with a lot of power.

He may not be the fastest of fighters, but he hits harder and actually aims his shots when he’s focusing on high volume punching. My guess is Roach thinks that Pacquiao will be able to duplicate what Shane Mosley did in his fight with Margarito, and that’s why Roach is talking about Pacquiao starting off fast and finishing fast. He must think that Pacquiao can overwhelm Margarito with a massive amount of shots. I don’t think it’s going to work.

Mosley didn’t just stand in front of Margarito trying to gun him down with ton of punches. What Mosley did was attack in brief two and three punch spurts. In between those brief bursts, he did a lot of clinching to keep Margarito from being able to throw punches. When he wasn’t clinching, Mosley was moving around on the outside. I don’t think Pacquiao will do any clinching with Margarito, because that’s not part of Pacquiao’s game. Even if Roach tried to train Pacquiao to smother Margarito with clinching, I don’t think he would follow that game plan.

The only way that Pacquiao can beat Margarito is to go toe-to-toe with him, and if he does try and throw a massive of punches like he did against Clottey, I think Margarito is going to beat Pacquiao up and stop him. We already saw what Clottey was able to do to Pacquiao in just throwing 15 to 20 punches per round. Can you imagine Margarito, a bigger puncher than Clottey, throwing 5 X that many per round? Pacquiao will get riddled to pieces. Roach better hope that Pacquiao can get Margarito out of there as fast as possible, because there may not be anything left of him if this bout goes 10 rounds or more.

Roach predicts knockout win for Pacquiao over Margarito

Pacman’s trainor, Freddie Roach as usual is predicting a knockout win for his fighter Manny Pacquiao against two-time welterweight champion Antonio Margarito. It’s almost become a given that Roach will be predicting knockout wins for Pacquiao every time he fights somebody. In Roach’s latest prediction, he says in an article at ABS-cbsnews, “Manny will knock him out.” My question is why, if Roach thinks Pacquiao is going to knock Margarito out, did Roach agree to have Pacquiao fight Margarito?

If Roach is predicting yet another knockout win, why fight Margarito? I imagine there has to be a number of fighters out there that Roach thinks Pacquiao couldn’t knockout, right? Why isn’t Roach standing up on his hind legs and having Pacquiao fight these guys instead of ones that he always thinks Pacquiao can knockout. Is that cherry picking?

Does Roach think that Pacquiao knockout every fighter or just the ones that are matched against him? I’d like to see whether Roach thinks that Pacquiao can knockout Sergio Martinez, Paul Williams, Dmitry Pirog or Alfredo Angulo. Since Pacquiao is fighting for the junior middleweight title in November, why wasn’t Williams, Angulo or Martinez selected instead of Margarito? Is it because Roach doesn’t think Pacquiao could knock them out?

I agree with Roach about his prediction about Margarito and Pacquiao, but I don’t see it as a sporting fight. Margarito looks nothing like he used to be two years ago. I don’t know what happened to him, but he looked like someone else in his loss to Shane Mosley last year and he looked equally bad in his win over Roberto Garcia in his last fight in May.

Margarito’s once big power is gone and he’s now trying to change into a boxer. That isn’t going to work and why do it now? I think Pacquiao will knock Margarito out, but I also think so would Martinez, Angulo, Pirog and Williams. Big deal. Why isn’t Pacquiao being matched up against better fighters than Margarito, Miguel Cotto and Joshua Clottey?

I don’t see them as being comparable fighters to Martinez, Williams, Pirog and Angulo. But I also don’t ever see Margarito, Pacquiao or Cotto fighting those guys. They’ll fight each other, but not those guys. I’d like to see any of them take those fights now. Margarito tried fighting Williams in the past, but he lost. But I want to see Pacquiao fight someone good and not a fighter that was stopped recently like Margarito.

source: http://www.boxingnews24.com/2010/08/roach-predicts-knockout-win-for-pacquiao-over-margarito/