BY KEITH IDEC, NorthJersey.com
Glen Tapia plans to compete at boxing’s elite level one day.
Manny Pacquiao plans to teach him how to get there.
The undefeated Tapia, a fast-rising junior middleweight prospect from Passaic, has been hired as Pacquiao’s primary sparring partner for the Filipino superstar’s Nov. 13 fight against Antonio Margarito at Cowboys Stadium. Tapia will leave today for Freddie Roach’s Wild Card Gym in Hollywood, Calif., where they’ll train for several days until leaving late next week for Pacquiao’s training camp in the Philippines.
"I’m going to learn how one of the greatest world champions trains, how he fights, everything," Tapia, 20, said. "It’s a great opportunity for me."
North Arlington’s Carl Moretti helped establish the Pacquiao-Tapia partnership while discussing potential sparring partners with Roach, Pacquiao’s respected trainer, during a three-city U.S. media tour to promote the HBO Pay-Per-View fight last week.
"Freddie was looking to give Manny a different look in this training camp," said Moretti, vice president of boxing operations for Top Rank Inc., which promotes Pacquiao (51-3-2, 38 KOs) and Margarito (38-6, 27 KOs, 1 NC). "He was looking for a young, aggressive kid to give Manny something to think about, so that it’s not the same old thing. Glen was the first kid that came to my mind. He’s built a little like Margarito. He’s right-handed, he throws a lot of punches and he’ll give it his all."
Tapia (7-0, 5 KOs) was supposed to meet Miami’s Edvan Barros (10-10-1, 7 KOs) in a six-round fight Saturday night in Las Vegas, but the fight was canceled two weeks ago. Tapia continued training at the Passaic PAL boxing gym, so he’ll head to Pacquiao’s homeland in good condition for at least five weeks of sparring.
Tapia expects Pacquiao’s training camp to be more challenging than the training camp he experienced with Ghana’s Joshua Clottey last year. Tapia was Clottey’s primary sparring partner for Clottey’s split-decision defeat to Puerto Rico’s Miguel Cotto 15 months ago at Madison Square Garden.
Pacquiao dominated Clottey (35-4, 20 KOs, 1 NC) in their welterweight title fight March 13 at Cowboys Stadium.
"Pacquiao’s going to throw way more punches than Clottey, and I throw a lot of punches," Tapia said. "So I think it’s going to be very explosive sparring. I’m very excited to see how the first sparring [session] goes. I’m not going to just stand there and take his punches. I’m going to go in there ready to go at it."
INVADING GERMANY: Samuel Peter is extremely thankful that Alexander Povetkin passed on a mandatory title shot and provided him with another shot at Wladimir Klitschko. He intends to prove it before 45,000 Klitschko-loving fans during their IBF/WBO heavyweight championship rematch Saturday in Frankfurt, Germany.
The Nigerian-born Peter (34-3, 27 KOs) knocked down Klitschko three times during their first fight, but Klitschko survived Peter’s power and won nine of the 12 rounds, 114-111, on all three scorecards nearly five years ago in Atlantic City. At least one of the knockdowns was questionable because Peter hit Klitschko behind the head.
The 6-foot-7, 245-pound Klitschko (54-3, 48 KOs) is now boxing’s most dominant heavyweight since Lennox Lewis retired 6 1/2 years ago.
"This time around, I’ve got my referee and my judge," Peter, 30, said. "My referee is my right hand and my judge is my left hook. So no question about it this time around. He will not get up from my hook."
Ukraine’s Klitschko, 34, hardly has lost any of the 73 rounds he has started in nine straight bouts he has won since Peter tested him at Boardwalk Hall. Klitschko’s safety-first style has frustrated American premium cable executives, however, to the point that they’ve stopped paying large license fees to televise his fights in the United States.
His rematch against Peter, his most dangerous fight since the first time they met, won’t be televised live in the United States. It will be available live at 5 p.m. on ESPN3.com, a subscription-based web site, and will be broadcast on ESPN on Sunday at 4:30 p.m.
COMPLETELY COMMITTED: Peter’s shoddy conditioning has cost the former WBC champion in many of his title fights, but his new trainer believes he has learned from merely relying on his power to win fights.
"I think the dedication has been the big difference that I’ve seen in Sam," said Abel Sanchez, Peter’s trainer since May 2009. "I’ve been able to keep him in the gym six, sometimes seven days a week. … I think in the past he has allowed outside influences to contribute to his lack of dedication, his lack of commitment. The discipline, this time, has been there, for me, anyway."
Peter has knocked out each of the four opponents he has faced since Sanchez started training him, but none of them were world class-caliber heavyweights.
E-mail: idec@northjersey.com Blog: northjersey.com/ringposts
Source: northjersey.com
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