‘Larios a dangerous fighter’

American impresario Frank Belmont has warned Manny Pacquiao that his coming fight with Oscar Larios of Mexico on July 2 is certainly not just a walk in the park and that the hometown crowd could be a danger signal on the bid of the Filipino ring idol to become the greatest Filipino boxer in history.

"Larios is a good boxer, not a great puncher, durable, quick, experienced and not easily intimidated," Belmont described the Mexican fighter from Guadalajara.

As president of Belmont Productions, Belmont knows whereof he speaks. He was an eyewitness in the separate fights of Larios and Pacquiao in the Boxeo de Oro’s monthly TV series for Latin American countries, exclusively for the Golden Boy Promotions.

Incidentally, Larios is a mainstay of the Golden Boy Promotions under the banner of Oscar dela Hoya.

"Larios is not a super-impressive fighter, but he is very professional, always walking with his hands encased in enormous white training gloves searching for sparmates in the club," said Belmont. "The Mexican has all the tools and if I am a manager, I’d like to own him."

Given a chance to work with promoter ABS-CBN for the fight, Belmont said the giant network is on the right step to become a world-caliber provider for TV shows for the job.

"If our offer is accepted, the Pacquiao-Larios fight would have a worldwide audience either on the US-based Direct-TV or IN-Demand affiliates in 50 countries," said Belmont. "Our programs are 90 percent sports-related and we are in contract with either cable providers to televise all international feeds for HBO Boxing".

Belmont blew into town Wednesday very privately. He just wants to take "a look and see" of Manila, the Araneta Coliseum (not the white beaches) and the Filipinos, whom, he knows, are electrified by Pacquiao’s ring exploits.

"I like what I’ve seen so far, and I’d like to relay a message to Pacquiao that there is an element of risk for any fighter fighting in his own hometown.

"As the promoter and hero in this coming drama, Pacquiao could also get a lot of distractions, too many responsibilities and is very dangerous for even a good fighter."

In between sips of cold lemonade, Belmont identified two lessons for Pacquiao to remember.

"One, when Pacquiao destroyed Marco Antonio Barrera via an 11th-round TKO win in 2003 at the Alamodome in San Antonio, Texas, a border town to Barrera’s hometown, the Mexican had majority of the big crowd backing him up. All odds were against Pacquiao. But the PacMan’s thorough thrashing of Barrera was a shocker to him and his handlers.

"And two, when welter Zab Judah lost to Carlos Baldemir of Argentina, there was bedlam in New York City, Judah’s hometown. Judah was a forlorn figure after the loss. It was a good thing for Zab to come back and outfight Corey Spinks in St. Louis, Missouri because after the win, he stayed on course and emerged a big winner."

"To believe that when a fighter fights in his own hometown could be easy is a hokum," said Belmont.