Peñalosa to have Roach at his corner in Puerto Rico title fight
04/23/2009 | 09:32 PM
MANILA, Philippines – After Manny Pacquiao, it’s Freddie Roach’s turn to be a no-show at the Wild Card gym in the coming days.
The world’s best trainer leaves for Puerto Rico Thursday night to be at the corner of Filipino Gerry Peñalosa as he takes on unbeaten Juan Manuel Lopez in a 12-round bout pitting two World Boxing Organization (WBO) champions at the Coliseo Ruben Rodriguez in Bayamon on Saturday (Sunday in Manila).
Roach will still oversee the six-round sparring schedule of Manny Pacquiao in the afternoon before he departs for the six-hour flight to the Northeastern Caribbean country.
He’ll be away for at least three days as Roach returns in Los Angeles Sunday evening.
Michael Moorer, conditioning coach Alex Ariza and second assistant Buboy Fernandez are expected to take care of Pacquiao’s training while Roach is away.
Roach already missed the press conference of the Peñalosa-Lopez fight held Wednesday in Puerto Rico.
He said Peñalosa, the reigning WBO bantamweight champion has his work perfectly cut out for him.
“We already have our plan for what is going to be a great fight. We know Lopez is a tough guy who starts strong and fast," said the three-time Trainer of the Year of the Puerto Rican native, unbeaten in 24 fights (22 KOs) and current WBO super-flyweight title holder.
“He doesn’t have a lot of weaknesses but we have seen several things and we will try to work on those during the fight," he said.
“Lopez is going to come forward and be aggressive, so Gerry will have to use his experience. I have no doubt that as the rounds go on, Lopez will start to slow down and then we will get him."
Peñalosa said, “I know that if I win this fight, a lot of people will be surprised. But it makes no difference to me. I’m coming to win and that’s all I’m thinking about."
A former World Boxing Council (WBC) flyweight champion, the 36-year old Peñalosa, 11 years older than Lopez, sports a 54-6 record with 36 KOs.
He trained for more than a month at the Wild Card gym before heading to Puerto Rico at the start of the month. – GMANews.TV
When Gerry lost to Ponce de Leon,Roach was busy with ODLH in PUERTO RICO.This time Freddie has to find time to be with gerry in his fight vs. LOPES. For my own personal reasons,i am now inclined to believe PENALOSA WILL WIN IN PUERTO RICO.
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