by Nick Giongco
NEW YORK CITY – Manny Pacquaio is confident that his advantage in punching power will propel him past Keith Thurman when they slug it out on July 20 in Las Vegas.
“If you have power, your opponent will be forced to respect you,” said Pacquiao on Monday, stressing that Thurman won’t like the impact of the many blows he is looking forward to land.
“And if you don’t have power and your opponent feels that your best punches can’t hurt him, he won’t give you even a little respect,” said the 40-year-old future Hall of Famer.
“I believe that my punches will force him to respect me,” he added. Pacquiao arrived in the Big Apple early-Monday morning after almost 20 hours of travel from Manila since the Philippine Airlines jet took off an hour late.
And instead of arriving at 11:15 pm, Team Pacquiao touched down at 12:38 am after the jet was forced to circle around Ohio owing to bad weather.
To make matters worse, Pacquiao and his party only got to the gate after an hour as there were too many planes waiting for their turn to take off at JFK International.
Pacquiao even thought about jogging at Central Park but he was so woozy and tired that he opted not to wake up early.
It’s also doubtful if he will try to wake up early on Tuesday since the normally five-hour commercial shoot in nearby Brooklyn lasted until 9 pm.
If Pacquiao decides not to jog again, he can still do so when he gets to Los Angeles for a Wednesday presser.
