Pacquiao remains dangerous Foe For garcia, crawford
For renowned strength and conditioning coach Justine Fortune, eight-division world champion sen. manny Pacquiao remains a dangerous foe for potential opponents mikey garcia or reigning world Boxing organization (wbo) welterweight champion Terence crawford.
Fortune believes Pacquiao is still the strongest and fastest fighter at 147 pounds despite the pandemic that kept him without a fight for almost two years.
age, Fortune stressed, is not also a factor because of Pacquiao’s dedication and discipline in training.
“everybody who fights Pacquiao has a very dangerous task. mikey [garcia] is a great fighter, but Pacquiao is a bigger and better fighter,” Fortune told Businessmirror through overseas call from his home in Los angeles, california, on wednesday. “He has speed, immense power, experience and everything he needs to win the fight against garcia,”
He added garcia (40-1 win-loss record with 20 knockouts) fought successfully in the 135-lb division before trying his luck in the welterweight class where he lost to unified champion errol spence Jr. via unanimous decision last march 16, 2019.
But he bounced back with a unanimous decision win over Jessie Vargas last February 29, 2020.
“at 147 [lbs] is a very, very dangerous jampacked division,” Fortune said. “They don’t understand that manny still has it and is dangerous.”
on the unbeaten crawford (37-0 record with 28 knockouts), Fortune said he hasn’t faced anyone in the caliber of the 42-yearold Pacquiao (62-7-2 win-loss-draw record with 39 knockouts) who faced the strongest and fearsome fighters in the division for decades.
“i’d like crawford, he is a good guy, a good fighter, but he hasn’t fought anyone on the level of Pacquiao,” he said. “it’s the same thing, everyone says they can beat Pacquiao, but until they face Pacquiao with his speed and power, his punching output, everyone says everything.”