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Friday, March 29, 2024

Cooper: Pacman is still a beast

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THE trainer of WBO welterweight champion Jessie Vargas said eight-division world champion and Philippine senator Manny Pacquiao is “still a beast, who still has the passion for boxing.”

In an interview with well-known boxing writer Steve Kim of Boxing Scene, Dewey Cooper said Pacquiao, who announced his retirement in April prior to running for a seat in the Senate, where some 16 million Filipinos voted him into office, announced he was coming back because he continued to have a passion for the sport, which he indicated was his life. He also said he made a mistake in announcing his retirement.

Pacquiao’s promoter Bob Arum of Top Rank believes Manny has two more fights left in him for 2017 and hopes, like Hall of Fame trainer Freddie Roach, that one of the fights will be a rematch with the now retired Floyd Mayaweather Jr., who had an unbeaten record of 49-0 and was Pound-for-Pound King.

As Cooper prepares Jessie Vargas to defend his WBO welterweight title on Nov. 5 versus Pacquiao, he still sees a great fighter in the other corner.

Pacquiao will face Vargas who is some 10 years younger at the Thomas and Mack Center in Las Vegas on Nov. 5.

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He stated that while some experts believes Pacquiao is no longer the same fighter who became an eight-division world champion, the trainer of Vargas disagrees.

When asked to compare the current Pacquiao to the one that was rampaging everything in sight five years ago, the trainer told BoxingScene.com: “Pacquiao’s still a beast. However, the knockout loss to (Juan Manuel) Marquez (in 2012), he started to be a little more patient since that fight which is not a bad thing. So Pacquiao’s still great, he still has his speed, he still has power, he’s still really into fighting. He has the passion for it.” 

Cooper  added, “ in our minds we’re facing the 2009, 2010 Manny Pacquiao and that’s how we want it because we want the best Manny Pacquiao.”

The 37-year old Pacquiao (58-6-2, 38 KO’s) last fought on April 9th where he decisively out-pointed Timothy “Desert Storm” Bradley. Vargas whose only loss was to Bradley when he had the champion in deep trouble in the final round when referee Pat Russell stopped the fight ten seconds before the final bell thinking that the clapper  was the final bell.

Bradley who has a record of 27-1 with 10 knockouts  won the WBO title on March 5th by stopping Sadam Ali in nine rounds.

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