Pacquiao manhandles IBF champ in sparring session

International superbantamweight champion Manny Pacquiao continued to boost his stock for his coming fight with Marco Antonio Barrera as he slugged it out with IBF superflyweight champion Luis Alberto Perez in a hastily arranged sparring session Friday at the Wild Card Boxing Club in Hollywood, California.

As in his earlier bouts with an Armenian and a Mexican, the Filipino world champion came out unruffled.

Sources said Pacquiao impressed the sizeable crowd in the venue as he showed great power and stamina versus Perez although he had just taken on Mexican slugger Israel Vasquez in another sparring.

Perez himself reportedly gave good words on the fighting condition of Pacquiao barely a week before his keenly awaited fight with Barrera on Nov. 15 at the Alamodome in San Antonio, Texas.

"Tapos na ang sparring ni Manny kay Israel Vasquez nang umakyat ng ring si Perez at nagsabi na gusto niyang maka-ispar si Pacquiao. Siguro akala niya kaya niya si Manny, pero si Perez ang nabugbog," a Team Pacquiao member said.

The same source said Pacquiao was pleased with his bouts with Vasquez and Perez.

Pacquiao, who is moving up in weight (126 pounds) to challenge Barrera, earlier sparred against the likes of British superfeather champ Alex Arthur, ex-champ world champ Johnny Tapia and Ireland’s unbeaten featherweight prospect Bernard Dunne.

No official title will be staked in the Pacquiao-Barrera duel but the fight has all the trimmings of a classic encounter between two of the world’s finest boxers.

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.