Manny Pacquiao may be 10 years older than WBO welterweight champion, American Jessie Vargas, at a ripe 37 years of age but he is definitely the odds-on favorite to win in their upcoming bout at the Thomas & Mack Center in Las Vegas, Nevada on November 5.
Despite the five-inch advantage in height and the four-inch advantage in reach of the tall and lanky Vargas, boxing aficionados are putting their money on Pacquiao to win the bout.
Still, nobody is discounting the possibility of Vargas pulling off an upset win over the Filipino boxing icon. In a recent pronouncement, the American boxer said that he sees himself coming out with a big victory in front of the entire world in spectacular fashion and also surprising everyone.
Vargas promised to use every advantage he has in the fight in order to make sure that his first defense of his WBO welterweight belt becomes successful. Pacquiao has incidentally won the same belt on three different occasions.
Going for the kill
Manny Pacquiao has only one motivation for the fight with Vargas – he wants to score a knockout. The last time that he scored one was during his bout with Miguel Cotto in 2009 when he stopped the already bloodied Mexican in the 12th round, details the Los Angeles Times.
His knockout defeat in the hands of Mexican Juan Manuel Marquez was a bit fresher at it that happened in December 2012.
According to Top Rank boss Bob Arum, it is imperative for the Pacman to score an impressive win over Vargas in order to set him up for one or two more major fights next year before he completely retires for good and focus on being a Senator in the Philippines.
Freddie Roach, the world-class trainer of Pacquiao, says that many of the game plans that Pacquaio’s opponents used did not work out so well. He said that he knows that the Vargas camp is working on a plan for the fight against Pacquiao but he says that the Filipino boxer is as sharp as a tack at the moment.
Roach said that Pacquiao actually cut him some slack as a trainer so he just needed to maintain him and keep the boxer where he is right now.
Dominating in most factors
ESPN sports analyst Brian Campbell, meanwhile, listed 12 key factors that could determine the outcome of the fight between Manny Pacquiao and Jessie Vargas on November 5.
He listed the categories where Pacquiao has the clear advantage over Vargas as power, experience, speed, durability, tenacity, stamina, versatility, and corners. That’s a total of eight categories that are seen going in favor of Pacquiao.
Campbell also mentioned that Vargas shall have the advantage in the aspects of defense, technique, current form, and wild card.
All things considered, the boxing analyst seems to go by the majority in assessing that Pacquiao is likely to win the match unless Vargas pulls off a major upset the way Marquez managed to do nearly four years ago.
Unlike in his previous fights where he usually trains in the US at least two months before his boxing match, Pacquaio was still in the Philippines until October 21 to finish his responsibilities in the Philippine Senate before it went on a break.
He flew to the US on October 22 and completed his training at the Wild Card gym of Freddie Roach.
Pacquiao was not able to help out as well in promoting his fight with Vargas which according to Arum was good for the upstart fighter and those in the undercards including Nonito Donaire, Jessie Magdaleno, Oscar Valdez, and several others.