Pacquiao's killer speed awes crowd -- Philippine Star

By Abac Cordero, The Philippine Star

DALLAS – Manny Pacquiao and Antonio Margarito went under public scrutiny Tuesday at the spacious Longhorn Exhibit Hall of the Gaylord Texan Hotel here.

And it came very clear to the hundreds who came who the bigger fighter is, who the faster one is.

“Hey, Manny! Show us your speed!” shouted a Mexican fan, one of those who rooted for the Filipino boxing superstar, and carried his picture, during the public workout.

Pacquiao did not disappoint, putting his vaunted speed on display as he shadow-boxed on top of the ring, worked the mitts with his chief trainer, Freddie Roach, the speed ball, and on his abdominal exercises.

He gave the public more than what Margarito did.

Pacquiao was on display for nearly two hours. He faced and fielded questions from the media for so long that the fans started chanting, “Let Manny go! Let Manny go.”

Then he worked the line, planting a thousand signatures on photographs, paintings, gloves, hats and even the white beach towel he used up the ring, which his trainer, Buboy Fernandez, tossed to the crowd.

Margarito didn’t stay longer than an hour, and opted to do the media interview behind the black curtains.

He was first to get up the ring, and smiled a lot as he exercised. In his sweat pants and long-sleeved shirt, he seemed to dance to chants of his name, pointing his fist to the crowd.

The bigger and taller Mexican worked the mitts with Robert Garcia for only three rounds. His hand wraps were tossed to the crowd, and a male fan gladly picked it up from the floor.

Even before the show began, Top Rank chief Bob Arum spoke to the media.

“The issue in this fight is Margarito is the bigger, stronger guy. But you can see from this workout that he’s much slower than Manny Pacquiao,” he said.

But Arum warned that Pacquiao’s speed won’t carry him to victory if he can’t keep it the entire evening.

“That speed has to be maintained throughout the fight. If Manny is not in good shape, and that speed became less in the later rounds, he would be in trouble,” Arum added.

“If he can do that, Margarito, as the fight wears on, will get weaker because people do. And that’s when he’s vulnerable to Manny.”

Arum said what he saw up the ring is the same old Pacquiao.

“He seems to be in top shape now, which means that he can maintain his speed for the entire fight,” he said.

There’s no one who can say no to that.

Source: philstar.com