by Ronnie Nathanielsz

If there was anybody who was disappointed with Bernabe Concepcion’s second round knockout at the hands of WBO featherweight champion Juan Manuel “Juanma” Lopez in a two round firefight in Puerto Rico, it has to be pound-for-pound king and “Fighter of the Decade” Manny Pacquiao.

After entering the dressing room of former two-time world light flyweight champion Brian Viloria before he entered the ring for his ten round comeback fight against Omar Soto in Solar Sports “Boxing at the Bay” series at the Ynares Sports Center late Saturday, Pacquiao spoke to BoxingScene.com, insidesports.ph, Standard Today and Viva Sports about the Puerto Rico blockbuster fight card which was telecast on Sunday morning by the giant broadcast network ABS-CBN over its pre-eminent Channel 2.

Pacquiao said Concepcion had “a big chance to win the fight because he is stronger than Juanma Lopez although Lopez is faster but because of his power Concepcion has a good chance of winning.”

Pacquiao said he had taught Concepcion “many things before this fight happened. I told him what he had to do to beat Lopez. Do everything I tell you in training. You must have quickness in movement of your feet as well as you head and improve your defense as well as positioning for throwing punches.”

He said he had told the young challenger to give himself some room to punch because his punches are too short. This is what you need to develop.” Pacquiao said he did what he told him in training and I told him if he implements what I taught him he could win handily.”

In the end it was clear that Concepcion didn’t follow Pacquiao’s instructions and appeared bent on trying to win the fight with one lucky haymaker but except for the dying seconds of the opening round when he dropped Lopez with a looping left hook Concepcion was wide open and was picked apart by the champion in suffering a 2nd round knockout.