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MANILA, Philippines—Even as Manny Pacquiao is on a diet plan that his handlers hope will minimize Oscar De La Hoya’s size advantage, the Filipino ring icon’s trainer still believes that speed will matter more when the “Dream Match” between the two fighters takes place on Dec. 6 at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas.
“We didn’t do any weightlifting to make him bigger because I believe speed wins this fight,” American trainer Freddie Roach told Michael David Smith of www.boxing.fanhouse.com.
“We have him on a diet with a lot of protein to keep his weight stabilized,” Roach said. “He’s been about the same weight in camp. His body fat is 6 percent and his weight is really good.”
Pacquiao currently weighs 151 lb and Roach is confident of the boxer making the 147-lb limit of the fight billed as the biggest face-off of 2008. Roach expects De La Hoya to come in at around 160 lb during fight night after rehydrating after the weigh-in—although that may seem like a problem right now for the Golden Boy.
Nacho Beristain, one of the think-tanks in Team De La Hoya, told Smith that De La Hoya has dipped to 146 lb as he trains at the Big Bear camp in California.
That has forced the Golden Boy’s team to flood his diet with carbohydrates in an effort to get him back up to 150. That means at this stage of their training, Pacquiao actually weighs a pound heavier than De La Hoya.
Roach told Smith that Pacquiao has learned to handle the difference in size by consistently sparring against bigger guys and feels that his ward’s overwhelming edge in hand speed will decide the bout.
“He’s handling the bigger sparring partners well,” Roach said. “When I saw how he handled the bigger sparring partners, I was very pleased.”
“I think speed wins this fight, not size. It’s not an issue at all.”
