The sparring partners of Manny Pacquiao are set, and most of them have arrived in the Philippines. The only one who stayed behind is Julio Cesar Chavez Jr., who is set to arrive in the country within two weeks.
But while all the attention have been given to Holloway,Chavez, Martirosyan and even Tapia, the most important sparring partner could be Michael Medina. He might be the least known out of the bunch, but he is a fighter with good skills, who has sparred with numerous solid fighters.
He is the current Mexican super welterweight champion with a respectable record of 24 Wins against 2 losses. His first loss was against Martirosyan early in his career during his second fight in the United States. The other loss came against a controversial split decision versus Duddy. According to Medina who I spoke with, he was not fully 100 percent since he had been ill in the last few days leading up to the fight.
Still, Medina gave Duddy all he could handle and even rocked the 'Derry Destroyer' a couple of times, which is why many, who attended the fight thought that he had pulled of a victory.
But it was a close fight that could have gone either way. Medina had the upper hand in the earlier rounds but lost steam in the later rounds, which can probably be attributed to the health issue and fighting at middleweight, a division where he had never fought before. However, he has been training hard in Wild Card Gym and is in much better condition.
But what probably makes Medina important is his experience in sparring against top fighters. He was Floyd's and Chavez Jr.'s sparring partner in their respective fights against Mosley and Duddy. Coincidentally, those fight are the biggest fights so far in the career of Floyd and Chavez Jr. So Medina might not just serve as an effective sparring partner but good luck charm as well.
Source: http://theboxingoracle.com
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