Is Manny Pacquiao too fat?
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At a boxing news conference I attended this week, a photographer handed out a sample of his most recent work to impress a longtime boxing character who knows the sport well.
‘That’s [Manny] Pacquiao?’ the fight veteran asked, turning to a portly writer who was between bites of an enchilada. ‘Has he been sharing a fork with you?’
The boxing vet says he’s now calling Pacquiao ‘Manny-o Pig-and-Cow.’
Pacquiao, preparing for a Dec. 6 welterweight (147 pounds) fight against Oscar De La Hoya, certainly appears more inflated than he did in winning a super-featherweight (130 pounds) title earlier this year against Juan Manuel Marquez.
At his East L.A. news conference earlier this month, he announced he’s walking around at 153 pounds, a testament, he said, to how comfortable he’ll feel at 147.
And Pacquiao elaborated, answering ‘a lot of people who think I’m too small for De La Hoya.’
He said he’s made a career of moving up in weight. His first fight was more than 13 years ago at 106 pounds. In 1999, ‘I had to move up to 120’ for the WBC International super-bantamweight title ‘and knocked the guy out in the second round. And I’ve moved up three more times since then.’
He most recently knocked out 135-pound David Diaz to win the WBC lightweight title in June and is now working with trainer Freddie Roach in Hollywood.
‘I’m a fighter, I know how to fight,’ Pacquiao said. ‘My power will come in training, and I’ll continue to develop my speed in training.’
-- Lance Pugmire
