Pacquiao sees early KO attempt by Morales Francis Ochoa Inquirer
November 14, 2006
LAS VEGAS — FILIPINO ring hero Manny Pacquiao has no doubt that Erik Morales will go all out to knock him cold early in their Grand Finale showdown on Saturday (Sunday morning in Manila) here.
“He’s going to try and knock me out in the early rounds,” Pacquiao told the Inquirer in Filipino.
“That’s the only chance he’s got. He’ll try to get me before he tires out.”
After a first night in the city where he conquered the world, Pacquiao said he was looking forward to thwarting the Mexican boxing legend yet again.
“I’m confident,” Pacquiao said.
Asked if his present state of mind could spill over to overconfidence, he clarified his remark: “I have lots of confidence in myself.”
The countdown to the mega-fight, the third and final encounter between the Filipino icon and the Mexican known as “El Terible,” has ticked down to just five days and Pacquiao is ready to cap his toughest training in his career.
The hard-hitting southpaw also expects Morales to stay away from a phone-booth brawl by opening up ring space and moving around a lot.
“There’s a chance he will run,” Pacquiao said. “In fact, if he gets hit hard and feels the pain, he’ll start running.
“I really feel he’s going to attack,” Pacquiao added. “He’s got a lot of pride. We’re going to hurt each other anyway, why not get on with it right away?”
Whatever Morales does, for Pacquiao, it doesn’t matter.
“If he charges but lets his guard down then all the better,” he said, adding such a move will allow him to introduce Morales to his right hook, a new weapon that is slowly becoming as potent as his pet left straight.
And with the knowledge that Morales has trained just as hard, Pacquiao said that at the final bell, win or lose, he will have no excuses.
“Once the fight ends [no matter what happens], there’ll be no excuses,” said the 27-year-old pride of Gen. Santos City. “Morales has trained differently this time.”
And so has Pacquiao. He has doubled road work every morning. And he has sparred a total of 157 rounds, the most in his career.
Pacquiao also expects Morales to make the 130-pound weight limit, an issue that has become almost synonymous to the November 18 super featherweight fight at the Thomas and Mack Center.
“I think he’s going to make it,” said Pacquiao (42-3-2, 32 KOs).
Morales (48-4, 34 KOs) is bound by contract to pay $500,000 for every pound he weighs above the weight limit.
Then, with a naughty smile on his face and his eyebrows raised, Pacquiao said: “They moved the weigh-in early. That gives him more time to recover.”
The weigh-in is slated at 2:30 p.m. Thursday. His previous bouts with Morales had 4 p.m. schedules.
