Top Rank Promotions big boss Bob Arum warned Manny Pacquiao against turning complacent in his training, saying the Filipino seven-division champion is facing a dangerous opponent in Mexican Antonio Margarito.
Arum, who arrived in Manila last Saturday to oversee Pacquiao’s preparations, said he saw how Margarito, whom the Filipino icon faces this coming November 14 for the World Boxing Organization super-welterweight crown, trains, adding he sees danger for the reigning junior welterweight champ.
“He (Pacquiao) better step up his training because this guy (Margarito) poses very, very unique dangers,” Arum told media men upon landing at the airport. “This, plus the fact that Margarito has his advantage in height, weight and reach,” “He is training extremely hard and I think his new trainer is doing wonders,” he added, in reference to Margarito’s newly-hired handler Robert Garcia.
Despite hearing Pacquiao’s reported insufficient altitude training in Baguio, marked by cancellation of sparring sessions due to injury and sickness and his frequent trips to Manila, Arum expressed confidence in the Filipino’s capacity to make himself in tip-top shape comes fight time.
In the same interview, Arum, likewise, disclosed that tickets are selling like hot cakes and that attendance might break the record set in Pacquiao’s lasst fight at the huge Dallas Cowboys Stadium in Arlington, Texas.
According to Arum, the paid attendance alone promises to dwarf the just over forty one thousand that attended Pacquiao's fight against Joshua Clottey. That fight being a March encounter with the little known Clottey resulting in a unanimous decision win for the newly-el;ected congressman.
Besides Pacquiao’s and Margarito’s popularity among the Texsas boxing populace, he attributed the sales to the drawing power of fighters seeing action in the undercard.
Appearances from fast rising Philly welterweight Mike Jones, Youngstown's former middleweight champion Kelly Pavlik and amateur star Guillermo Rigondeaux will undoubtedly bolster both the pay per view buy rate as well as the live attendance figures, he predicted.
Arum also said that the fact that the rangy Mexican brawler was campaigning to regain his license to fight in the United States due to the notorious loaded hand wraps incident, and his last fight against that resulted in a devastating loss also serves as added interest among fight fans to see the bout.
Source: philboxing.com
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