Pacquiao-Matthysse fight will not last 12 rounds – either way
Training under the searing desert heat of Southern California, Lucas Matthysse and his camp expressed the belief that next month’s defense of the World Boxing Association (WBA) welterweight title against Manny Pacquiao won’t go 12 rounds. Either way. Less than four weeks before locking horns with the Filipino great, Matthysse opened his training camp and allowed a Fil-Am stringer from a TV network to watch the hammerfisted Argentine train alongside Joel Diaz.
“Because of the fighting style of the two fighters, I don’t see it going the distance,” Diaz told GMA correspondent Jhay Otamias, who braved the weath- er that shot up to over 40 degrees Celsius.
“Someone will go down,” claimed Diaz, who was Tim Bradley’s former trainer.
Diaz noted that the first guy who lands the biggest shots will win the scheduled 12-round battle for the WBA 147-lb belt at the Axiata Arena in Kuala Lumpur.
While Team Matthysse is convinced Pacquiao is no longer the punching machine who used to rock opponents, the 39-year-old eight-division champ is not to be trifled with still.
Stressing that though Pacquiao has aged and slowed down dramatically, Diaz said the fighting senator continues to command respect even as he insisted Matthysse will be right there to negate whatever Pacquiao brings to the ring. Matthysse, 35, captured the title last January in Los Angeles.
By the time Pacquiao enters the ring, it would already be more than a year since his last outing.
Pacquiao dropped a controversial decision to Jeff Horn on July 2 last year in Brisbane.