Manny Pacquiao Fight: 'Pacman' May Spar With Miguel Cotto At Wild Card Gym
Kendall Holt, Manny Pacquiao's upcoming sparring partner in former welterweight contender, was unveiled earlier this week. But the Pacman could be facing tougher sparmate when he shifts his training to Wild Card Gym in Los Angeles, where old foe Miguel Cotto could be waiting.
Pacquiao started his preparation for his WBO Welterweight championship rematch with Timothy Bradley Jr. this week. Holt, the man who floored Bradley twice, was tapped to become Pacquiao's sparring partner.
"Pacquiao will be reportedly using former WBO light welterweight champion Kendall Holt (28-6, 16 KO's) and Lydell Rhodes (19-0, 9 KO's) as two of the sparring partners for Pacquiao. There will be likely others that will be used by Pacquiao, but initially these are the two names that he'll be working with," Sports Talk 200 reported.
Holt and Bradley battled each other 5 years ago with the former scoring two flash knockouts against the undefeated American fighter. But Bradley remained composed and used his superb boxing skills to grind out a unanimous decision win in the process.
Still, many boxing pundits criticized Michael Koncz's decision to bring in Holt as his next sparring mate because everybody believes the former champion has already lost his skills that made his a force in boxing few years ago.
"Holt isn't a great mover at this point in his career, and I'm not sure if he'll be any use at all in mimicking the fighting style that Bradley uses. If it looks like he's not able to copy Bradley;s style, then they need to dump him and get a sparring partner that is more similar to Bradley," Boxing News 24 Writer Chris Williams said.
Cotto In the House?
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Hall of Fame Boxing Trainer Freddie Roach previously stressed he didn't rule out the possibility of Pacquiao and Cotto sparring each other. Cotto, who is scheduled to fight Sergio Martinez, has expressed his willingness to prepare the man that demolished him in their championship bout in 2009.
Cotto might be a little slower than Bradley, but he can surely toughen up Pacquiao, who seeks to reclaim the WBO Welterweight title when he conceded in a controversial split decision loss to Bradley in 2012.
"They're good friends now, so I'm not sure how hard they'll go," Roach said in an interview with ESPN.
