Justin Fortune, the strength and conditioning coach of eight division world champion Manny Pacquiao, believes Lucas Matthysse is a bit chinny.
He feels confident that once Pacquiao starts unleashing his combinations - then Matthysse will slowly crumble down.
Pacquiao will challenge Matthysse for the WBA "regular" welterweight champion at Axiata Arena in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia on July 14.
Pacquiao is coming off a twelve round decision loss to Jeff Horn, which took place in July 2017 at the Suncorp Stadium in Brisbane, Australia.
At 39-years-old, Pacquiao has his entire career at stake in the contest.
As part of their training, Fortune reveals that Pacquiao is training primarily to land accurate shots that always hit their intended target.
“In sparring, the objective is targeting,” said Fortune to Phil Boxing.
“That’s why we brought in George Kambosos, an undefeated Australian lightweight, to spar with Manny. We’re trying to get George in Manny’s undercard in K. L. but if that can’t happen, George will take a fight in the US two weeks later so he’s getting ready, too. We thought of bringing over Sergey Lipinets, a Kazakh lightweight, but he likes to go to war in sparring so he’s not the kind of sparmate we want.”
Fortune has been studying Matthysse and he believes the Argentine puncher has a weak chin - especially after watching how Matthysse was stopped by Viktor Postol in 2015.
While Pacquiao has not scored a knockout since stopping Miguel Cotto in 2009, Fortune feels confident that he'll stop Matthysse.
“Matthysse has a weak chin,” said Fortune. “He took the 10-count in losing to Postol and I don’t think Postol is a heavy puncher with only 12 KOs in 28 wins at that stage. We know Matthysse will be well-prepared for the fight so it’s important that Manny is in the best condition of his life.
“He’s aggressive, a brawler. He’s not changing his style overnight. But Matthysse did show some boxing skills in outpointing Ruslan (Provodnikov). That fight was an all-out war with both fighters banging each other so Matthysse made an adjustment. Against Manny who’s quicker and smarter than Ruslan, Matthysse will fight the way he usually does. Besides, even if Matthysse decides to box, there’s no way he can outbox Manny. We expect Matthysse to try to pressure Manny, push him to the corners or along the ropes. He'll fight dirty like (Jeff) Horn.”
