Barrera shapes up for Pacquiao bout

While Manny Pacquiao is brushing up on his English, Marco Antonio Barrera is working on his pair of 33-year-old legs.

Barrera, the former WBC super-featherweight champion, is currently in the beautiful port of Acapulco where he’s been staying in shape by running on the beach and exercising at a local gym.

Barrera told Mexican newspaper Esto the other day that former bitters and now co-promoters Top Rank and Golden Boy are still ironing out the details of the Oct. 6 rematch in Las Vegas.

Barrera, however, said “those are just a few details” and that “the fight is sealed.”

While it was announced that the fight would be held at Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas, Barrera said other venues being considered are the MGM Grand and Thomas and Mack Center.

Barrera will fly back to Guadalajara soon, and will make the decision whether he would train at the Big Bear Camp in California, or stay in Mexico where there are good training grounds.

“Next month I will begin to work hard for this fight,” said Barrera, who had thought of retirement since losing the crown to Juan Manuel Marquez, a fellow Mexican, last March.

Barrera had said he wanted to do one more fight, an “easy” one, before retiring. But when Top Rank and Golden Boy suddenly came to terms, a million-dollar rematch with Pacquiao came up.

Barrera just couldn’t say no to it. Pacquiao, who knocked out Barrera in the 11th round of their 2003 showdown in Texas, is in Manila, taking it easy before he plunges into serious training in Los Angeles on the first day of August.  

Pacquiao, only 28, has started taking some tutorial lessons in English, and was quite busy lately doing a commercial and planning another dig at the movies. Pacquiao was scheduled to fly to the US last week for a poker tournament in Las Vegas, a meeting with Golden Boy honcho Richard Schaeffer and chief trainer Freddie Roach.

But the trip was called off at the last minute, and Pacquiao said it’s better to stay in Manila until the time he’s really needed in the US for the start of the two-month grind.