Justin Fortune, the strength and conditioning coach for eight division world champion Manny Pacquiao, has been reviewing video of WBA "regular" welterweight champion Lucas Matthysse.
And Fortune believes Pacquiao is capable of knocking Matthysse out when the two boxers collide on July 14 at the Axiata Arena in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
“We’ll continue with what we started and keep Manny where he is today, but this time, three weeks before we leave the country, we’ll also have to spend time drawing game plans on how to beat Lucas,” Fortune said to The Manila Times.
Pacquiao, 40 years old, has been out of the ring since losing a twelve round decision to Jeff Horn in July 2017 in a major career upset.
The Filipino superstar has not stopped any opponent since putting away Miguel Cotto in the fall of 2009.
According to Fortune, he's discovered a lot of flaws after watching tapes of Matthysse.
There are many who believe that Pacquiao is a few steps short of his best and close to the end of his career - but Fortune is not in agreement.
“We’ve been watching tapes of Matthysse’s latest fights, including his losses to (Victor) Postol and (Danny) Garcia, the past several days and we’ve found several defects and weaknesses in his style, which we’ll try to exploit, ” Fortune said.
“Of course, we also found where his strength and we, certainly, will find solution to offset. Lucas is definitely strong and dangerous and has one the best trainers in the business [in Joel Diaz]. But as we’ve noticed, he has not a few bad habits and weaknesses Manny can easily capitalized on. Manny, after more than two decades of fighting, is still on top of his game. He also has suffered a few setbacks and earned brickbats as a result.
“But those, I’m sure, taught him lessons and make him a more intelligent fighter. That’ll be his biggest advantage in this fight"
