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Freddie
Roach believes super-featherweight contender Humberto
Soto poses a stiffer challenge for Manny Pacquiao than
current world champion Juan Manuel Marquez.
This was
Roach’s reaction in yesterday’s press conference to
promote Soto’s upcoming bout versus Bobby Pacquiao on
June 9 at the Madison Square Garden in New York.
“Soto is
the next best fighter after Manny and is more dangerous
than Marquez,” said Roach.
The
27-year-old Soto fights under Top Rank Inc. owned by
veteran promoter Bob Arum.
It is
widely believed that Arum is pairing Soto against the
younger Pacquiao, confident that the Mexican will
prevail in emphatic fashion.
After
his bitter defeat in his congressional bid, the boxing
superstar asked Arum to set a September outing in the
United States.
The
26-year-old Pacquiao, however, warned Soto of not taking
him lightly in their nontitle encounter a week from now.
“I’m
really prepared for this fight. I’ll take care of him,”
said Pacquiao in the press conference held at the El
Paseo Inn in Los Angeles.
The
younger Pacquiao is being trained by Roach at the Wild
Card Gym in Hollywood. They are set to leave for New
York on June 4.
The
Tijuana-native Soto has a record of 41 wins, five losses
and two draws with 25 knockouts.
Since
his 12-round defeat to former world champion Kevin
Kelley in 2002, Soto racked up 18 wins in his last 19
fights, 13 by knockout.
Soto
fought recent Pacquiao victim Jorge Solis to a
no-contest decision after their bout was stopped in the
third round because of a serious cut in Solis’s eyelid
two years ago.
Soto was
once a World Boxing Council interim featherweight
champion when he decisioned former Olympian Rocky Juarez
in August 2005.
Juarez
twice lost to three-division world champion Marco
Antonio Barrera in a WBC superfeatherweight title bout.
In the
same press conference, Soto disclosed his readiness to
take the place of Pacquiao for the mandatory title bout
versus Marquez.
Pacquiao
recently informed the WBC about his decision not to
pursue his mandatory title fight against Marquez.
However
one faction of Team Pacquiao wants the boxer to take
back his decision and still consider Marquez as his next
opponent.
Arum,
who is Pacquiaos current recognized promoter, is still
in search for the Filipino fighters next foe.
Though
Pacquiao has long established his superstardom in the
sport, his managerial situation is not as smooth as his
career inside the ring as the General Santos City native
fighter is currently enmeshed in a bitter legal dispute.
Pacquiao’s promotional deal is still being litigated in
two separate courts in Los Angeles and Las Vegas.
Pacquiao
entered into a seven-fight deal with GBP September of
last year.
After
his three-round conquest of Erik Morales late last year,
Pacquiao signed a similar promotional deal with Top Rank
with a reported $1-million dollar bonus.
Pacquiao
is scheduled to leave today for Los Angeles together
with wife Jinky and two of their kids.
The
Pacquiao family will first proceed to Orlando to for a
brief respite before enplaning for
New York.
Pacquiao
is set to receive the Edward J. Neil trophy as 2006
Fighter of the Year award from the prestigious Boxing
Writers Association of America (BWAA) on June 8 at the
Copacabana. |
