Pacquiao, Hoya head back to training camps

Manny Pacquiao and Oscar de la Hoya get back into serious training for their Dec. 6 showdown at the MGM Grand Garden in Las Vegas with the world’s No. 1 pound-for-pound fighter heading to the Wild Card gym and the Olympic gold medalist and 10-time champion to the Big Bear.

The duo wrapped up their whirlwind six-city pre-fight promotional tour in rousing fashion at famous Whittier Boulevard Arch in East LA, where De la Hoya grew up, with over 5,000 fans on the rooftops, on the sides of the street and behind the platform, braving the scorching summer heat to cheer for their boxing idols.

The tour, put up to hype up the showdown between two charismatic fighters, began in front of the Statue of Liberty in New York and passed its way through the Sears Tower in Chicago, the Space Center in Houston, The Alamo in San Antonio, the Golden Gate bridge in San Francisco before windup up at De la Hoya’s neighborhood.

Now, it’s back to serious business.

“A lot of Mexicans are behind me and I’m going to prove to everyone that I am No.1 pound-for-pound,” said Pacquiao, who has already started training at the Wild Card Gym under trainer Freddie Roach before the promo tour kicked off last week.

De la Hoya said he was “just happy to be back in East LA where I grew up” and announced that he’ll head to Big Bear with his team and start training today.

Meanwhile, Roach said he is confident Pacquiao’s speed will be the deciding factor even as he pointed out that De la Hoya has had a hard time fighting southpaws, according to Philboxing.com.

De la Hoya, on the other hand, has tapped the services of Ignacio “Nacho” Beristain and believes that his experience in Juan Manuel Marquez’ hard-fought encounters with Pacquiao will be of great help.

De la Hoya, bigger in size and enjoys a sizeable reach advantage, has said he will use all of these to win by knockout. But Pacquiao countered that he will erase the concerns of those who didn’t want this fight to happen and will “prove them all wrong.”

The fight will be telecast “live” with tickets sold out days after both camps came to terms. It has an estimated pay-per-view buys of at least two million aside from a worldwide audience on free TV.  – Dante Navarro