Manny Fights Morales in July

According to Murad Muhammed from www.manilatimes.net : Convinced that the Filipino boxing champion would hurdle Thailand’s Fahsan 3K Battery in the headliner of the “Yanig sa Taguig” boxing card on Saturday, Murad said that he has already negotiated with cable giant Home Box Office for Pacquiao to meet with Erik Morales in July. Murad added that by securing a July fight date with Morales, who lost his World Boxing Association and International Boxing Federation super featherweight crowns to archrival Marco Antonio Barrera, he was also expressing confidence that “PacMan” would beat Juan Manuel Marquez in their February 26 rematch. Morales was originally set to fight Pacquiao on November 28, until Bob Arum, Top Rank Inc. chief, entered the picture and convinced the former Mexican champion’s handlers a third showdown with Barrera would be better. Murad said that despite his setback, Morales “had not lost his credibility. After we come out of the Morales fight, we will take on Barrera if he’s ready.” Barrera has been ducking Pacquiao—apparently because he has not gotten over the beating that he received from the Filipino fighter when they first met on November 15, 2003 at the Alamodome in San Antonio, Texas. Murad, who thought that the earlier Pacquiao-Morales face-off was a “done deal,” said “anything can still happen” in the plans that he has lined up for Manny. He mentioned the possibility of the Filipino boxer battling World Boxing Council featherweight champion Injin Chi of South Korea, who is handled by Manila-based Korean businessman-sportsman Kusung Lee. A major supporter of the title match is lawyer-sportsman Rudy Salud, the WBC founding secretary-general, who had a recent dinner with both Murad and the Korean promoter. “Let’s prepare for the future so that Injin Chi and Pacquiao can meet and both fighters can make significant money,” Salud told Murad. “Right now Injin Chi is not in the cards, but because he’s the champion and he’s winning, there is a great possibility that he will meet Manny Pacquiao in the future,” Murad replied. American trainer Freddie Roach, who began his two-day clinic for local trainers at the Ninoy Aquino Stadium on Thursday, said the rematch with Marquez “would be a hard, technical fight.” “We have to make some adjustments and have to fight a much better fight than we did last time, because I’m sure Marquez is going to do the same,” said Roach, who had close to 100 attentive listeners at the opening of his clinic. He said that Marquez “is up in the mountains training for Manny right now. He is a conditioning freak, but he’s going to need to train up in the mountains because we’ll be ready for him.” On the other hand, Roach said that although Pacquiao is a southpaw, he noted the boxer’s right hand could be even more explosive and devastating than his left “when he pivots properly, as he sometimes does.”