June 7, 2006
TOKYO, JAPAN
Ex-WBC 122-pound champ Oscar Larios, Mexico, who is scheduled to face Manny Pacquiao in Manila on July 2, showed good sparring sessions with WBC bantam champ Hozumi Hasegawa, a southpaw like Pacman, on Wednesday at the Teiken Gym, Tokyo, Japan. Larios arrived here last Saturday and appeared at the Korakuen Hall to see the Jorge Linares-Pedro Navarrete bout on the night. Larios, accompanied by his trainer Edison Reynoso, started sparring with WBC top ranked 122-pounder Toshiaki Nishioka and other Japanese lefties from this week.
Larios will stay here in Tokyo for three weeks before he enters Manila a week before the highly anticipated showdown with the Filipino superstar at the Araneta Coliseum. It is a wise decision made by his business manager Rafael Mendoza that Larios has effective training with sharp and fast southpaws in Japan, which is like Lariosf second home country as he visited here many times as a sparring partner for Joichiro Tatsuyoshi and Nishioka before his world coronation and as the defending champ against Manabu Fukushima, Shigeru Nakazato and Kozo Ishii. Unlike in Mexico, there are many excellent southpaw boxers in Japan, which usually does not produce coverted southpaws but makes natural lefties fight as they are.
Larios and Hasegawa engaged in four sparring rounds each for four minutes. Hasegawa, slated to risk his belt against the official challenger Genaro Garcia on July 15, occasionally scored with southpaw lefts to Larios, who beautifully retaliated with sharp combinations by utilizing his gifted height and reach. They sparred almost in even terms, and Larios looked in good shape.
After the sparring sessions this reporter asked his trainer Edison about Lariosf weight at this moment. He replied, gOscar weighs at 59 kilogram (130.25 pounds) after training.h Only a quarter pound over the stipulated weight (as they will square off with the WBC international super-feather belt at stake). There will be no worrying about a possibility that Larios might fail in the weigh-in as his compatriot Jose Luis Castillo.
(6-7-06)