MikeLigalig.com

by pna

Frankie Gomez, a young 29-year-old junior welterweight prospect, will be Manny Pacquiao’s sparring mate in the eight-division world champion’s leg of his Wild Card Gym training camp in Los Angeles.

Gomez, who owns an immaculate 12-win record in his young professional career, nine of them via stoppage, is Roach’s choice in what could be a two or three-man sparring rotation in Pacquiao’s camp starting Monday next week when the Filipino sensation moves to the U.S. from a two-week stint in General Santos City.

“Of course, there will be one or two more in the rotation, but for a start, we’ll start with Gomez to give Manny the feel of what it is to be atop the ring with an opponent after more than three months of hibernation (following his controversial loss to Timothy Bradley last June 9),” Roach said in an overseas telephone interview Tuesday.

A former outstanding amateur with a 120-8 win-loss record before turning pro, Gomez, a silver medalist in the World Amateur Championships, approximates the style of Mexican Juan Manuel Marquez, whom Pacquiao is dating for the fourth time on December 8 at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas.

“Malakas, mabilis at counter-puncher din,” attested Roach’s Filipino assistant Marvin Somodio under whose tutelage Gomez is at the Wild Card sweat shop.

“Simply magaling,” Somodio said. “Swak na swak kay Manny kaya tamang-tamang maging sparring partner.”

From the time he knocked out veteran Clayvonne Howard in his first pro-bout via a third round KO, Gomez rattled in eight more abbreviated victories in his next 11 outings including a third round annihilation of James Hope in his last outing December last year at the Honda Center in Anaheim, California.

“I’ve been watching Gomez’s career closely for years and he is one of the best amateur boxers I’ve seen in a long time,” legendary Oscar DeLa Hoya said of Gomez once.

Pacquiao, the fighting Congressman from Sarangani, is scheduled to fly to Los Angeles on Saturday and will be setting foot in U.S. soil the same day (U.S. time). A day’s rest on Sunday precedes what could be the toughest grind he will be undergoing in years in his effort to win convincingly this time following his doubtful 2-1 win-draw record against the Mexican legend in their trilogy.

On Tuesday morning, Pacquiao capped his two-week preparations in GenSan by rounding the city’s sports complex oval for half-an-hour before plunging into action in the gym briefly in the afternoon.

“As I said, stamina-building lang ang ipinunta ko dito sa GenSan to prepare myself for a more serious camp at Wild Card,” Pacquiao said after his morning roadwork.

Linkback: https://tubagbohol.mikeligalig.com/index.php?topic=56504.0