Manny Pacquiao’s strength and conditioning coach Justin Fortune has told the Manilla Times that his team are working on different game plans to beat WBA “regular” welterweight champion Lucas Matthysse this week ahead of their July 15 clash at Axiata Arena in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
The fight will be the first for the 39-year-old Pacquiao since losing his WBO welterweight title to Jeff Horn in Brisbane, Australia almost a year ago.
“We’ll continue with what we started and keep Manny where he is today, but this time, three weeks before we leave the country, we’ll also have to spend time drawing game plans on how to beat Lucas,” said the Los Angeles-based Australian who runs the Fortune Boxing Gym in Hollywood.
“We’ve been watching tapes of Matthysse’s latest fights, including his losses to (Victor) Postol and (Danny) Garcia, the past several days and we’ve found several defects and weaknesses in his style, which we’ll try to exploit.
“Of course, we also found where his strength and we, certainly, will find solution to offset.”
The 35-year-old Argentine, who is trained by Joel Diaz, moved up in weight to 147-pounds last May after campaigning for his entire career at junior welterweight.
“Lucas is definitely strong and dangerous and has one the best trainers in the business,” Fortune said. “But as we’ve noticed, he has not a few bad habits and weaknesses Manny can easily capitalized on.
“We’re preparing Manny for a worse scenario and we know, too, they’re preparing for us. So it’ll boil down to who prepares well, where, I believe we’ll have the edge.”
Fortune insisted that even after two decades in the pro game Pacquiao is still on the top of his game, but admitted that it’s his experience that makes him such a dangerous proposition.
“But those, I’m sure, taught him lessons and make him a more intelligent fighter. That’ll be his biggest advantage in this fight,” Fortune said.
