SHANE Mosley can boast all he wants, but he better make sure he’ll hit his target. This was the response of Manny Pacquiao to Mosley’s boast last Wednesday that the Filipino ring star, who is staking his World Boxing Organization welterweight crown on May 7 (May 8 in Manila) at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, is "hittable."
"Sure, I am hittable, but his problem is, tatama ba siya?" Pacquiao said.
"May inihahanda na kaming game plan ni Freddie (trainer Freddie Roach) at ito ang pinagtutuunan namin ng pansin ngayon at sa mga susunod pang linggo bago dumating ang laban," Pacquiao told Malaya/Business Insight in an overseas telephone interview shortly after his training session Wednesday (Thursday in Manila) at the Wild Card gym in Los Angeles.
"Ibang taktika naman ang gagamitin namin ngayon. Malaki ang kaibahan kaysa ginamit naming nu’ng mga nakaraan laban ko. I have been fighting different fighters with different styles the past 10 years and I never used the same style in each of those fights," Pacquiao stressed.
"We will just surprise him in the same manner na sinorpresa din namin si (Oscar) DeLa Hoya, si (Miguel) Cotto), (Jopshua) Clottey, (Antonio) Margarito at iba pang nauna sa kanila," he said.
"Alam ni Freddie kung saan malakas si Mosley at kung saan siya mahina in both offense and defense at doon kami magko-concentrate sa nalalabi pang mga araw ng amaing paghahanda," Pacquiao noted.
Mosley, during his media day Wednesday in his Big Bear, California camp, claimed Pacquiao’s fighting style is tailor-made for his preparations, adding the world pound-for-pound king is more vulnerable than some might believe.
He said this was evident in Pacquiao’s win over Margarito, when the Mexican found the target and obviously hurt the Filipino.
"Pacquiao’s nature is to fight. Pacquiao isn’t a boxer like (Floyd) Mayweather, who slides away from you. He can do it … but it’s not what’s in here (pointing to the heart of a media men). Like me … I can box, I can move. I did all that in my amateur career. I’m not in there to do that, though. I want to knock you out. That’s what people pay do see."
Asked if his age would not be a disadvantage, Mosley retorted: "If they think, ‘Oh, he’s 39, that’s going to be his problem,’ they’re going to have a problem on May 7."
Pacquiao will hold his media day on April 20 at the Wild Card Gym in company of Roach, Fame promoter Bob Arum and members of Team Pacquiao.
Eddie Alinea, Business Malaya Insight
