This early, things are not shaping up right for Manny Pacquiao in his upcoming third meeting with Mexican boxing legend Erik Morales.

There are reports about Pacquiao planning to drop his management team led by Shelly Finkel to tie up with Top Rank and Bob Arum.

There is also the gloves issue.  Reports have it that the Las Vegas Boxing Commission has a new rule on the weight of gloves used in professional boxing.  From the 8-ounce lowest limit the new rule has set a 10-ounce lowest limit.  That sounds bad news for Pacquiao.

We also have reports of Morales getting into shape but without getting weak in the process.  He is being handled by nutrition and weight experts so that he will be able to make weight without losing his punching power.

Rumors also have crept into the local media branding Pacquiao as a big time gambler at casinos.

But the good thing is Manny Pacquiao has gone back to light training to prepare this early for the November 18 slugfest with “El Terrible”.

Morales is, I believe, not the foolish kind of boxer who does not change strategies especially if he knows that his strategies the last time did not work for him.  He is doing some new stuff to get back at the PACMAN.

His third encounter with PACMAN is going to redefine his status as a boxer.  The big IF, however, is that he must beat Pacquiao and that is just what’s in his mind.

I think he is more focused this time and he has much time to prepare and he is studying Pacquiao carefully devising ways on how to neutralize the power of his latest tormentor.

Pacquiao, on the other hand, knows that he will be facing the best-shaped Morales ever in their trilogy of battle this coming November.

The big question is:  What should Pacquiao do to beat Morales again?  Share your thoughts, people.

Too bad for Viloria.  Too bad for the Philippines.  What a way to lose.  It should’ve been better if one of the lesser known fighters in the Mano-a-Mano lost than for Brian Viloria to lose to Omar Romero. 

Romero the Mexican proved that Filipino boxers are also beatable and he did it against a legit world champion.  Viloria’s loss somehow dampened the high spirits of Filipinos who are still revelling over the sweep of Mexican sluggers last July 2.  It was not much expected by many for Viloria to lose but it appears like the Mexicans have found a way to beat the likes of Manny Pacquiao.

Romero’s title-snatching win also brings an inspiration in the Mexican camp of fighters especially to the camp of Erik Morales who are bent on duplicating the Romero act come November 18 at the Thomas and Mack Center in Las Vegas, Nevada.

The latest word from Morales asking his fans to give him one more chance at redeeming himself may have been inspired by the Romero win against Viloria.  Remember, Viloria is in the stable of Freddie Roach, the same man who trains the Pacman.

Those words of Morales show he is taking his upcoming third encounter with Pacquiao as the most important fight of his career.  Never has Morales been this emotional.  He’s had difficult wars with Barrera but he never asked his fans for the kind of support he is asking them right now.

May be it has dawned on Morales that fans can make a difference in a single fight and he is not letting this opportunity pass him by.  No, not now, now that he is on the brink of being obliterated in the arena where he has dedicated most of his life.

The money he will receive from the bout, win or lose, is big but I believe Morales sees that as a secondary motivation.  His main motivation is to show to the world that people are mistaken of striking his name out in most pound-for-pound lists. 

He has learned his lesson and he learned it the hard way, that’s why he is making the hard manner also of preparing himself for that one last opportunity for redemption.

Tell me, fellas.  Will Morales be dealing Manny Pacquiao another loss?

The limelight in professional boxing has turned to the lower weights starting from the superfeatherweight division.  The likes of Manny Pacquiao, Erik Morales and Marco Antonio Barrera have brought significant interest in boxing viewership and it seems like the cameras shall maintain focus on them and the lower weight classes where a number of exceptional talents abound.  There are Jorge Arce, Ivan Calderon and Martin Castillo at flyweight limits and today, Brian Viloria, the WBC lightflyweight champ has his moment to bring the limelight to himself.

In his first defense of the title, Brian “Super V” Viloria did not make much of an impression with a tactical but relatively dull unanimous decision win against former champ Jose Antonio Aguiree.  When he flew in to the Philippines, his was not a frenzied welcome as what usually awaits his compatriot, Manny Pacquiao.

This is his time to shine, to show to the world that the Super V is also an exciting and entertaining champ to watch.  He will be squaring off against rugged Mexican fighter Omar Romero.

What Super V must do is to make a sensational knockout win against the game and vastly experienced Romero who has a score to settle with Filipino fighters.  Romero may be spurred by the fact that he is not another Mexican who will succumb to the power of Filipino boxers just like what happened in July 2 in Manila, Philippines where not one of three Mexican gladiators ever get to put their Filipino opponents. 

If these two fighters will really play according to their strongest motivations, they will no less make the viewers stay on the edge of their seats to watch what promises to be an exciting slugfest.  Viloria, being the champ, must show off to all that he can be the next lucrative fighter to wacth out for in the lower weights.

Want a piece of the Super V?  Here’s a treat from ringtalk.com’s Favio Flores.  Click here.

I go straight to the point.  Spare Manny Pacquiao of the dirt of politics.

The icon of Manny Pacquiao is being stealthily dragged into the continually sick political atmosphere here in the Philippines.  From the remotest barangay to the strictly guarded palace, nobody can confidently admit to the cleanness of the political roads. 

Malacañang is the bastion of politics of various colors that continue to discolor the Philippine political arena and its stains spread all the way to even the helpless constituents in countries like Lebanon and Israel. 

If that’s how far dirty politics can go, how much easier can political discoloration seep through the highly absorbent mantle of the main city?

No, politics’ dirt can never be cleaned unless old systems and overstaying personalities go out of the political ring.  Not even the bleaching power of boxing can undo the dirt.

Manny Pacquiao is made by boxing, and though boxing has its own dirt, Manny has managed to get rid of some stains and his is now not just an icon of excellent boxing but also of clean boxing.

Perhaps because of his clean radiance, some political hands want to touch him in the belief that his radiance can add a shining glow to some discolored careers or one prodigy’s upcoming adventure.

Manny Pacquiao, in his helpful and generous self, can have other avenues to reach out to the marginalized.  The avenue of politics is so grimy and muddy and slimy with fine sticky loam of filth accumulated through decades of unfair and dishonest service that if he tries to trod on it, he might well become one dirtied icon whose stain-free career could be so eventually discolored that even his incredible legacy would just be totally blotted by political discoloration.

Dirty politics should not mix up with clean boxing, unless the boxer so decides to the favor of the dirt.

News reports have it that the weight limit of 130 lbs. for both Manny Pacquiao and Erik Morales will be a highly defining factor in their third face-off this coming November 18, 2006 in Las Vegas.

Morales made such a big issue about his weight in the worst loss in his career last January and, lately, he made news that he has tapped the services of a weight expert to help him make the weight limit in due time.  He said he tipped the scales right last time but not without much punishment on himself, a factor he attributed to his losing cause.

Manny Pacquiao has never been reported to have problems in making the weight limit but judging from his physical build right now, he looks bloated!  Some fans can’t be blamed if they air their concern about his weight especially when the stipulations of fines for any excess poundage are not only applicable to Morales but to him, too.

Experts know what sort of “ordeal” boxers have to go through just to make the weight limit and Morales might just be telling the truth when he said his weight-reducing regimen took its toll on his performance in the Pacquiao-Morales II.  You can sense he’s not bluffing because he’s doing something about his weight right now, while Pacquiao is presently taking it easy after going through a long partial fasting prior to his fight with Oscar Larios.

The question now is:  Will Manny Pacquiao have weight problems, too? 

The popular boxing radio host Pedro Fernandez hits the nail on the head when he described Manny Pacquiao as the first post-Internet fighter.  What he means is that Pacquiao brings the glory of boxing to the peaks of Internet websites.  Well, that is just another reason to back up the claim that Manny Pacquiao is the most popular boxer in the world today — “Internetly” speaking.

But Pacman is not just enlivening the boxing websites but also the sport of boxing itself.  While many experts dismiss him to be no. 1 pound-for-pound against Floyd Mayweather, there is not a doubt that the science of boxing is in its liveliest mood not when Pretty Boy Floyd fights but when Pacman rumbles. 

Boxing promotions will have fat pockets if they have a hell of a Pacman matchup.  Advertisers have nothing to lose if Pacman is their product endorser.  Entertainment companies will rack up the profits if they can have exclusive rights to Pacman’s fights.  Politicians with not much to promise can become strong contenders when they rub elbows with the Pacman. 

In the Philippines, crime rates drop , political enemies suddenly become friends, families not normally together become one, church attendance drops or church schedules are adjusted whenever the Pacman fights.  And if there ever is one who will get in the Pacman’s way, let that one prepare himself to be devoured by the human embodiment of the pacman computer game.

Back to the Internet.  Tell me, who should be Internet’s number 1 boxer?

You are looking at the picture of golf’s teen sensation, Michelle Wei of Hawaii, a 13-year-old girl whose features defy the limits of her age.

She recently made golfing waves in the 2003 U.S. Women’s Amateur Public Links golf tournament by capturing the champion’s trophy and becoming the youngest winner of the event at age 11. She also recorded her name as the youngest golfer ever to play in a Professional Golf Association (PGA) event when she teed off at the Sony Open on January 15, 2004. Her participation in the event also marked the only fourth time in the long history of the PGA to have a female joining a male-dominated professional group.

Her ballooning popularity has actually landed her on the front cover of Fortune magazine and has even got the lucidity of some people to the limit when she is thought of to be the anti-christ because of her phenomenal golfing prowess.

Is she the heir-apparent to the throne now occupied by Tiger Woods?

In boxing, talk is a commodity.  It may be just as expensive as the boxing purse itself as it is the link that ties fighting parties together.  Talk is also a medium used by handlers to hype up the upcoming bouts of their wards and it is also no surprise when the punchers don’t use just their fists but also their words before, during, and after a fight.

Since professional boxing is highly defined by time tables, it is expected that the camps involved in a particular match will be rounded up by mediamen and get to put the camps in some sort of “word war” before the actual “war” happens.  This is especially true when a bout is one for the title or when the protagonists involved are the cream of the crop and when their upcoming skirmish is gigantically promising in terms of monetary returns for all the parties concerned.  Professional boxing, in fact, is presently under the mercy of moneyed promoters and media outlets.

It is, therefore, no surprise to hear of Freddie Roach to utter unwelcome words about Erik Morales, if ever he indeed said those words, to sell the highly expected third encounter between Manny Pacquiao and Morales.  Morales’ response does its own share of emboldening the fonts of his second rematch with the Pacman.

To sum it up, word war always precedes wards war.

Make no mistake about it.  A battle in boxing does not actually start in round 1.  It starts when the boxers close all doors, windows and other openings for purposes of training.  The training defines the outcome of a fight.

For Erik “El Terrible” Morales, the battle begins when he goes up in the mountains of Los Angeles to start his weight reduction program, a program so crucial that if done improperly will result to a sorry loss in the end.  That was his undoing in his second encounter with the Pacman and he’s not a fool to repeat a previous mistake.

It is, then, his foremost concern at the moment to bring his weight to the level suited for what could be the singular bout that Erik Morales could not forget.  He will come to the fight venue a different man than he was last January 21, 2006.  He is coming off a two-fight losing streak, an uncommon scenario for the kind of fighter that he is.  He knows that the sunset of his sterling career is near and he doesn’t like any cloud of failure block the bright rays of his boxing sun. For Erik Morales, the third battle with Pacquiao has already begun.

In the case of Manny “Pacman” Pacquiao, the battle with Erik Morales actually began when he fought Oscar Larios.  It is no secret that he fought Larios as a tune-up fight for the third and probably his last skirmish against “El Terrible”.

His six-week training going to the duel with Larios was enough for Chololo’s caliber but to say that the same kind of training is enough against Morales is to commit a grave training mistake.  Morales is several notch better than Larios and Pacquiao knows that and with such an awareness, he will not train for only six weeks.  His preparation was not excellent in his first fight against Morales and he paid dearly for that lack of excellence.  His training in the second fight was superb and he finished Morales off in an equally superb fashion.  Pacquiao knows the kind of training he has to do for the Morales fight and when he starts the training, that’s the beginning of the battle.

Oscar Larios thought he had what it takes to dispose of Manny Pacquiao.  He trained hard and sacrificed a lot and when it was time to fight the Pacman, he believed in his heart that he would not join the group of Mexican losers against the Filipino ring idol.

Larios, however, came up short, so short of everything needed to falsify the claim that Pacquiao is the Scourge of Mexican Boxers.  He had the heart but lacked the necessary heft.  He had the inspiration but not enough of ammunition to destroy The Destroyer.  He had the stuff but not enough to avoid joining the group where Emmanuel Lucero, Marco Antonio Barrera, Juan Manuel Marquez, Hector Velasquez and Erik Morales belong.  Manny Pacquiao is indeed the scourge of Mexican boxers.

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