Barrera-like sparmate just right for champ

Manny Pacquiao found a hard-hitting sparmate in Israel Vasquez but liked what he got from the Mexican slugger.

A source from the Pacquiao camp said the reigning IBF super-bantamweight king was pleased with his bout with Vasquez, a top contender in the superbantamweight category whose fighting style resembles that of Marco Antonio Barrera.

Pacquiao, 24, is in the thick of his preparations for his keenly-awaited clash against Barrera on Nov. 15 at the Alamodome in San Antonio, Texas and Vasquez proved to be the man he had been looking for all this time.

Pacquiao slugged it out with Vasquez for five rounds Wednesday with the latter punishing the former with solid body punches that shook the Filipino fighter.

Ranked as the fifth best Super Bantamweight in the world by Ring Magazine, the 26-year-old Vasquez, nicknamed "Magnifico," boasts of a 34-3 record with 24 KOs and once came so close to capturing the WBC super bantamweight crown of Oscar Larios.

Earlier, Pacquiao came out unruffled against an Armenian and another Mexican sparmates whom he boxed for 10 rounds at the Wild Card Boxing Club in California. He has been training under noted coach Freddie Roach the last three months.

Pacquiao, aware that a victory over the Mexican idol will also catapult him into the elite circle of Filipino greats Gabriel "Flash" Elorde, Pancho Villa and Ceferino Garcia, has likewise sparred against the likes of British superfeather champ Alex Arthur, ex-world champ Johnny Tapia, and Ireland’s unbeaten featherweight prospect Bernard Dunne.

"Sampung araw na lang at laban na," said Pacquiao, as confident as ever of his chances against Barrera, considered as one of the best pound-for-pound boxers in the world in their mega-12-round "People’s Championship of the World" fight.

Pacquiao is moving up in weight (126 lbs) to challenge Barrera, who is generally regarded as the best featherweight in the world.

No official title will be staked in the clash but the fight has all the trimmings of a classic encounter between two of the world’s finest boxers — a boxer-puncher in Barrera against a knockout artist in Pacquiao.

Pacquiao, who stopped Emmanuel Lucero in the third round in their IBF bout last July in Los Angeles, is a hard-hitting southpaw and considered as one of boxing’s more exciting, up-and-coming stars.

In fact, no less than the Golden Boy himself, Oscar dela Hoya, who incidentally is the promoter of this blockbuster card, said that the 24-year-old Pacquiao has an "excellent punching power and always gives a great performance in all his fights."

But against Barrera, Pacquiao will have an opponent touted as the best 126-pound fighter, who distinguished himself as the only boxer to inflict defeats on previously unbeaten champions Erik Morales and Hamed Naseem.