Cotto looking for lefty sparmates

Tapping and finding sparring partners who are mirror-images of Manny Pacquiao will be the key to victory for Miguel Cotto when he faces the Filipino icon on November 14 in Las Vegas.

Cotto chief trainer Joe Santiago told the newspaper El Nuevo Dia that they are on the lookout for southpaw sparring partners who they plan to bring to Tampa, Florida, for the crucial phase of training camp.

“We will try to get left-handed and short boxers with good hand speed (like Pacquiao). This is the key to victory,”

Santiago said as he was presiding over Cotto’s first training session on Monday in Puerto Rico.

Cotto said he felt great after his light training, something that was not the case in the past.

“I feel very well, thanks to God. Better than when I began in previous occasions,” said the 28-year-old Cotto, who will report to the gym three times a week in the next two weeks in time for the arrival of conditioning coach Phil Landman.

While Cotto is already in training mode, Pacquiao appears to be taking it nice and easy and it seems the 30-year-old four-division champion will only get to put on a pair of gloves after the four-city promotional tour being arranged starting on September 10.

Even if Pacquiao is still fulfilling his obligations and not opting to show up at some private gym in Manila, the fighter remains on track in the proposed eight-week training camp that will be supervised by Freddie Roach in a venue to be determined in the next few weeks.

By the time the press tour makes its final stop in Los Angeles on September 14, Pacquiao can still afford to take a day or two off before hooking up with Roach to God knows where.

Being eyed to host Pacquiao’s first half of training camp are the Bahamas, Vancouver, Mexico and even the Philippines.

Source: mb.com.ph