"If one of my
sparring partners had done that then I would not be happy."
Frank Skinner with Muhammad Ali's former
sparring partner Larry Holmes.
Among them is Big Joe Egan who made his name as
sparring partner to former world boxing champ Mike Tyson, before turning to acting where he has appeared in films such as Guy Ritchie's blockbuster Sherlock Holmes.
Pianeta, 28, said: "As a
sparring partner I was in Wladimir's camp last year.
Pacquiao's adviser Michael Koncz described the rumour as "absurd," because for one thing the boxer never had a compatriot for a
sparring partner since he started practising in the United States.
Unbeaten Irish welterweight Byrne has served as a
sparring partner for Filipino Pacquiao at trainer Freddie Roach's Wild Card Gym in the build-up to both this fight at the MGM Grand Garden Arena and last December's victory over Oscar De La Hoya.
Fred Elliott is determined to win his boxing match with rival butchers the Maddocks, but picking Diggory for a
sparring partner isn't wise.
A scholarly tiff between New York Times dance critic Anna Kisselgoff and Martin Duberman, biographer of Balanchine's patron and
sparring partner Lincoln Kirstein, illustrated that the past is not set.
It is not surprising, then, who the authors' main
sparring partner turns out to be.