The WBO welterweight championship fight between Filipino boxing icon and Philippine Senator Manny Pacquiao against American Jessie Vargas on November 5 will be the perfect day for Filipino boxing enthusiasts.
For the first time in their respective careers, both Manny Pacquiao and promising Filipino boxer Nonito Donaire will be fighting on the same occasion as the latter will be defending his WBO super bantamweight belt against undefeated Jessie Magdaleno in the undercard, reports the Boxing Junkie.
Their respective fights would be two of the three title fights that would be featured in the Pacquiao-Vargas main event to be held at the Thomas & Mack Center in Las Vegas, Nevada on November 5.
The other title fight involves two-time Olympian and undefeated WBO featherweight champion and Mexican rising star Oscar Valdez going up against No. 1 contender Hiroshege Osawa from Osaka, Japan.
Can Vargas overcome the Pacman?
Although he is the reigning WBO welterweight champion, boxing analysts are questioning whether Vargas has the skills to overcome the Pacman in the ring.
Many people believe that Vargas does not have what Pacquiao has to really sell the fight but Top Rank President Todd duBoef believes that Vargas is greatly underrated.
Of course, he cannot argue about the claim that it is Pacquiao who would be bringing in the crowd and the only question remaining to be answered during the fight is whether Jessie Vargas has what it takes to overcome Pacquiao.
If Jessie Vargas, and only if, defeats Pacquiao, it is likely that the Filipino boxer would retire for good. But if Pacquiao comes out smoking after their fight, which experts are predicting, then he would be going up against another welterweight champion in Terrence Crawford of the WBC next year.
duBoef also said that Vargas is very charismatic and he has done a wonderful job promoting himself. During his match with Timothy Bradley not too long ago, he had Bradley hurt but lost the last 10 crucial seconds of the final round due to the referee’s error. Manny Pacquiao never had Bradley like that, explained the Top Rank president.
Personally feeling the power punches of the Pacman
If there is one person who has recently felt the power punches of Manny Pacquiao, it is no other than his trainer Buboy Fernandez.
Despite his built of over 200 pounds and all the protection he wore, Fernandez still felt the impact of Pacquiao’s power punches when they had the sparring session on September 22, reports the Inquirer.
After the session with the Pacman, the palms and wrists of Fernandez turned red and ached owing to the velocity of the power punches that Senator Pacquiao unloaded including three solid blows to his friend’s mid-section.
Interviewed by sports writers after the sparring session with Pacquiao, Fernandez said that he believes that Jessie Vargas cannot withstand the power punches of the Pacman on their November 5 fight.
Freddie Roach shall be arriving to the Philippines next week and will take over from Fernandez as chief trainer of Pacquiao.
Fernandez also revealed that he and fellow trainers Nony Neri and Haplas Fernandez also made the punching bag more compact to suit the Pacman’s new-found power.
Pacquiao has started his initial training for the fight last month after also announcing that he will come out of retirement for the second time to fight Jessie Vargas on November 5. He only does a few laps of running in the morning because of his legislative commitment in the Senate.
He is also not too concerned about the claims of Jessie Vargas that he would defeat him, saying that he finds the fighting style of Vargas not too difficult to study and counter.
Team Pacquiao shall be leaving for the United States after the Senate adjourns its session on October 22. That would give him more than a week to train further before his November 5 fight.
Incidentally, Manny Pacquiao recently spoke about the rumored hypothetical fight between Floyd Mayweather Jr. and UFC champion Conor McGregor.