Manny Pacquiao’s weight concerns related to catch weight
With less than two weeks before his 13 November WBC title fight with Antonio Margarito, weight concerns continue to plague team Manny Pacquiao.
As it stands, Pacquiao weighs 146 pounds, five pounds below his contracted fight catch weight of 151 pounds.
His inability to put on the pounds has forced conditioning coach Alex Ariza to adopt new strategies with the fighter in an effort to preserve his signature speed.
Originally, Ariza wished to build Pacquiao up to the weight of 150 pounds for the fight, but even that may prove impossible.
Ariza contends that Pacquiao’s weight problems can be explained by trainer Freddie Roach’s insistence that he retain speed, which means cutting back on bulking, and the fact that he always had trouble putting on pounds.
Part of that certainly has something to do with Pacquiao fighting at weights that his team believes are naturally too heavy for him.
Ariza expressed his concern for Pacquiao, with, "It’s too late. We can’t change anything in the next ten days."
There's also the problem of catch weight for Pacquiao.
Catch weight is a prearranged weight limit agreed upon by promoters that does not match up with official weight categories. Instead, they often fall a few pounds lower or higher than traditional categories, in a bid to help smaller fighters make weight
against bigger contenders.
Although Pacquiao participated in only one official catch weight fight before Margarito, against Miguel Cotto at 145 pounds, he has been criticized by some in the boxing world for allegedly relying on them to fight opponents.
"I hate catch weight fights," Roach recently said. "We should fight at 147, let’s face it. But they [Pacquiao and Margarito] made that deal. I have to live with it."
Some contend promoter Bob Arum has headed the foray into catch weights for Pacquiao, simply for the reason that it opens him up to more competition and allows him to win titles in divisions he otherwise would never fight in.
The Margarito fight, at the catch weight of 151 pounds, will be for the 154 pound WBC junior middleweight championship.
Margarito is expected to put on 15 pounds between weigh-in and the fight, arguably giving him a substantial difference over "Pacman" come fight time.
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