Pacquiao Says He’d Lose if He Fought Cotto Now; Lyakhovich Signs With King – News

By Boxing News - 09/11/2009 - Comments

By Eric Thomas: Manny Pacquiao (49-3-2, 37 KO’s) admits that he would be in a hard time of he fought Miguel Cotto now, saying “If Cotto and me fight today, I’d lose,” according to the Manila Bulletin. While Pacquiao has been busy filming commercials and taking of other business commitments in the Philippines, Cotto has been busy training for the past month in Puerto Rico.

Cotto’s training showed earlier yesterday when he stood side by side with Pacquiao at Yankee stadium, in New York. Cotto looked already to be in fighting shape, whereas Pacquiao looked slightly puffy, not in his normal great condition and kind of sleepy-eyed. Pacquiao, 30, has resisted the requests from his trainer Freddie Roach to start training.

Pacquiao says that eight weeks will be enough for him to get in shape for the November 14th fight against Cotto. Pacquiao says that he knows his body and that eight weeks should be enough. Cotto, however, doesn’t feel the same way and has been hard at work for the past four weeks training ahead of Pacquiao.

Cotto is two yeas younger than Pacquiao at 28, and standing side by side with Pacquiao at Yankee stadium, Cotto appeared to be at least as many five younger than Pacquiao. That could be because Pacquiao had taken a long flight and had a worn look to him. Pacquiao and Cotto will be traveling to Puerto Rico, San Francisco, Beverley Hills and San Diego, California, as part of a five city press tour.

The first part of the press tour begun on Thursday in New York. Following the press tour, Pacquiao and his trainer Freddie Roach will be teaming up to train in the Philippines, in a city called Baguio. This fight will likely be a lot tougher for Pacquiao than his last two bouts against Oscar De La Hoya and Ricky Hatton.

Cotto isn’t old, inactive, weight drained and shot like De La Hoya was for his fight with Pacquiao, and Cotto has much better boxing skills and size than Hatton did. Pacquiao will likely find himself in a fight similar to his two bouts against Juan Manuel Marquez, and will have to somehow grind out a victory by a 12 round decision if he’s to get the win.

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Lyakhovich Signs With Don King

Former World Boxing Organization heavyweight champion Sergey Lyakhovich (23-3, 14 KO’s) has reportedly signed with promoter Don King Promotions on Wednesday. Hopefully, King will be able to arrange some big fights for the 33-year-old Lyakhovich, who hasn’t seen action since being defeated by Nikolay Valuev last year in a one-sided 12-round unanimous decision loss in February 2008.

Lyakhovich looked like he wasn’t mentally there for the fight and didn’t appear to fight as hard as he normally did in the past. Lyakhovich lost his WBO heavyweight title in the fight before that against Shannon Briggs in November 2006, losing by a 12th round knockout with only one second left to go in the fight.

Lyakhovich had a lead going into the final round against Briggs and only needed to stay away from him to win the fight. However, Lyakhovich instead chose to slug with the big power punching Briggs and ended up getting hit with a big right hand and taken out. Lyakhovich captured the WBO title in April 2006 with a 12-round decision win over Lamon Brewster.

If Lyakhovich can recapture the form that he had in the Brewster bout and in the first 11 rounds of his fight with Briggs, then Lyakhovich could still be a major player in the heavyweight division.



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