Boxing Updates: Latest Boxing Event

When Michael Moorer returned to the Wild Card Boxing Club to serve as Freddie Roach’s chief assistant trainer two months ago, the retired former heavyweight champ knew he was home.

Moorer, one of the dozen or so world titleholders spawned from the Kronk Gym, says the atmosphere at the Wild Card is very similar to the famous but now-defunct Detroit gym.

There are many similarities but the main ingredient that links to the two gyms, according to Moorer, is the constant hard sparring between world-class fighters and young boxers who want to become world class.

“The wars,” is how Moorer put it. “You have wars in here. Your manhood is tested in the ring. That’s what makes you a fighter.

“I told a young fighter recentlya good kid from Minnesota I was working with named Joey Able you need to go where your manhood will be tested. Kronk is gone, so now Wild Card is the place.”

That might explain why Jorge Linares, a Venezuelan junior lightweight titleholder based in Tokyo, was at Roach’s Hollywood, Calif. gym Thursday afternoon.

Linares, training in Las Vegas for a May 9 title defense in Texas, heard that Pacquiao began sparring this week in preparation for his May 2 showdown with Ricky Hatton and needed quality partners.

Urbano Antillon, the local fighter hired to be Pacquiao’s chief sparring partner, was out sick this week. Antillon’s trainer Rudy Hernandez told Linares, who, eager to fill-in for the tough lightweight contender, told his Las Vegas handlers to take him to Los Angeles immediately.

It might sound a little crazy that Linares would make a four-hour drive just to engage in one four-round sparring session, but the 23-year-old boxer knows, like Moorer, that there’s no better way to test his mettle than to get in the ring with the best fighter in the world.

Thursday wasn’t the first time Pacquiao and Linares have sparred, but it was the first time in many years. The last time they met in Wild Card’s ring, Pacquiao had just gained recognition as the linear featherweight champ by dominating Marco Antonio Barrera; and Linares was an unknown teen-aged featherweight prospect.

However, the young Venezuelan’s uncanny poise, balance, speed and accuracy forced the emerging Filipino icon to operate at 100 percent during their heated, head-turning gym sessions.

Now Linares, who won a title at featherweight before grabbing a belt at 130 pounds, is a full-grown junior lightweight with the frame of a junior welterweight. He’s added power to his finesse game, but Pacquiao, who advanced from junior lightweight to welterweight last year, has added considerable strength to his speed game.

Before Linares stepped inside the ropes, Akemi Irie of Teiken Promotions, told Roach that the lad had not sparred since sustaining a cut over his right eye while training in Tokyo last month.

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“My dream was to come here to England and it has come true,” Pacquiao told the British newspaper The Sunday Telegraph. “I also have the desire to take the light welterweight title, and it’s a big honor to be in another fight which the fans want to see.”

Manny Pacquiao will be after Hatton’s International Boxing Crown on the May 2 – “The East vs the West” slugfest. Having the winner of the said match the chance of being the light welterweight kingpin of the Ring Magazine.

“Every time I fight, I have to win because millions of Filipinos are hoping for victory,” said Pacquiao, who wore a suit. “Millions of people look to me to win. I have to go out and give everything.”

Hatton was more optimistic in front of his countrymen who naturally made up majority of the estimated 6,000 fans.

“On May 2, I’ll be the new pound-for-pound king,” Hatton vowed. “I’ve never been beaten at 10 stone (140 lb). This is my weight. This is where I do best. I promise all my fans I’ll win for Manchester!”

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MANILA, Philippines – After missing the early part of training camp, Freddie Roach is expected to fully take over the work out and preparation of Manny Pacquiao for his May 2 fight with Ricky Hatton in Las Vegas, Nevada.

Any day now, Roach will be reporting back at the Wild Card gym in Los Angeles following almost a two-week absence to be with world title prospect Amir Khan in his bout against Mexican great Marco Antonio Barrera in Manchester, England.

Khan beat Barrera via a fifth round technical decision.

In his absence, Filipino trainer Buboy Fernandez, conditioning coach Alex Ariza and former heavyweight champion Michael Moorer tried to hold the fort and set off Pacquiao’s heavy, eight-week training for his first ring appearance for 2009.

But of course, there’s nothing like having back the same man responsible for molding Pacquiao to be the world’s top pound-for-pound fighter that he is known today.

Upon Roach’s return, he also brought along an assurance from the lanky Khan that the British fighter will help get the Filipino ring idol in shape against his countryman.

Khan told Roach before the trainer departed for L.A. that he’ll show up at the Wild Card gym once sparring session for Pacquiao begins.

“I’d like to help Manny because he’s a good friend,” said the 2004 Athens Olympics silver medalist.

Khan and Pacquiao had sparred together twice in the past just before their respective big fights.

The native of Manchester, England held a few sparring session with the Filipino just as he was preparing for his mega-welterweight showdown with the legendary Oscar Dela Hoya last year.

The 30-year-old southpaw from General Santos City then returned the compliment when he helped Khan get in shape for his make-or-break encounter with Barrera. A former conqueror of the Mexican Hall of Famer, Pacquiao also gave the Briton a few tips on Barrera’s weaknesses.

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