Pacquiao, Morales Prepare Hard For Trilogy(Morales sounds good!)

http://www.boxingscene.com/?m=show&id=5624

By Rey Danseco

While his opponent Manny Pacquiao has to contend with some attempts to distract him from fight preparations, Erik Morales has deep concentration at the beginning of his training camp in the mountains of the Otomi region in Mexico.

Morales plans to bring in seven sparring partners starting within the next 10 days under the watchful eyes of his father-trainer Jose Morales at the Otomi Ceremonial Center.

Morales also tapped the living legend and former World Boxing Council bantamweight and super bantamweight champion Daniel Zaragoza to teach him to fight a southpaw like the power-punching left-handed Pacquiao.

The camp of the Tijuana hitman never revealed the names of the sparring partners.

Morales and Pacquiao has seven weeks remaining to train for their third fight on November 18 at the Thomas and Mack Center in Las Vegas, Nevada.

Morales plans to conclude his training camp when he leaves for Las Vegas on November 11 or 12 to acclimatize in the glittery gambling capital.

Last Wednesday night, Morales arrived in Otomi and has begun his training the following morning by jogging in the high terrains.

In the afternoon, the 30-year-old fighter jumped the rope and hard exercises in the gym, including the instructions from the clinic in Los Angeles where he reduced more than dozens of pounds to 145-lbs frame at the news conference at the Beverly Hill Hotel last September 19.

“I had a great work out in the clinic in Los Angeles. And I arrived Otomi in better weight than expected,” a Mexican newspaper quoted Morales.

On the other hand, American trainer Freddie Roach will tap four sparring partners to help Pacquiao in his preparations for right-handed Morales.

Roach named his two other trainees, Hispanic welterweights Juan Lazcano (36-3-1, 27 KOs) of Texas and Vicente Escobedo (10-1, 9 KOs) of California, as Pacquiao’s sparring partners. The two others were described as young and promising fighters from Mexico.

Lazcano, a 31-year old, 5-foot-9, is also in the thick of preparations for the World Boxing Association light welter eliminator against Manuel Garnica on October 21 at Don Haskins Center in El Paso where Filipinos Gerry Penalosa and Jimrex Jaca also see actions.

While Escobedo is also preparing for another fight in November. He is a resemblance of Morales being 5-foot-8 and having a 72 inch reach.

Morales and Pacquiao split their two previous meetings. Morales won by two points each on three scorecards to earn a unanimous decision over 12 rounds last year. Pacquiao gave Morales his first defeat by stoppage, a 10th round technical knockout in their rematch in January.

Hi El Gamo, aaaahhhhh, just been relaxing the whole sunday on this not so civilized area somewhere there on the land of Pacman. All my family members stay in Manila, but I'm stuck here coz I've got things to take care of, though not that much far from there...

The Morales guys seem to be pretty upbeat these days huh. He seems serious in his training and really motivated too. So you've got a lot to smile about, eh. But we on the Pac side are all pissed off by his utter lack of work ethics, he seems to be footdragging ever since in his training. To add to the problem, there seems to be no end in his trouble with his managers or whatever. But thanks for the article, at least his sparring partners prepared by Roach seem really awesome, but will that be enough? I'm expecting a reaaaal war - I'm diggin' my foxhole and preparing my sandbags for the fight. Whewey!!! How 'bout a CC to add to your smile? you've got it! :laugh:

CC back bro. Yeah,Erik sounds really really good and having seen interviews,he seems really happy too. He is fully focussed on making the weight which is excellent! I wouldn't say Manny sounds lazy or anything,as I don't know much about his sparring but he is about 137 so he is almost in shape anyway,I just hope some of his drive has gone!!