LAS VEGAS — His face crumpled into a scowl, Erik Morales arrived here late Monday night after a nearly four-hour flight from Toluca, Mexico, just five days before he steps into the ring to face archrival Manny ?Pacman? Pacquiao on Nov. 18 at the Thomas and Mack Center.
Unlike Pacquiao, who arrived here in a long convoy that snaked from Los Angeles, where he trained for this match, Morales arrived in a group of three vehicles about an hour before midnight.
Very little fanfare marked his arrival at the Wynn Hotel as he got in through the discreet Tower Suites entrance instead of the main lobby, the same ploy Pacquiao pulled off to avoid a crowd rush.
The 30-year-old Mexican superstar looked trim — but sullen — upon his arrival, wearing a brown khaki jacket and jeans.
He was in a group that included his father Jose and trainers from the Velocity camp, where he worked out his weight problems to make sure he would have no problems when he tips the scales on Friday.
If his arrival is any indication, Morales is likely to sidestep Pacquiao a lot in the third match of the highly anticipated rivalry.
Morales stepped off the SUV that brought him from the airport to the hotel in cloak-and-dagger fashion, eluding journalists, photographers and camera men who waited for him for hours.
When he was spotted behind another SUV, he played cat-and-mouse with a television camera man from the Philippines, keeping the vehicle in between him and the person trying to take a video of him.
Even his father refused to talk to reporters.
While walking toward the hotel elevator, Morales waved off a journalist trying to take a photograph of him and continued marching with his chin dipped into his chest so as not to give anybody a clear shot at him.
Morales has been furiously working with the Velocity?s experts to find a way to trim down to the 130-lb super featherweight limit without sapping his energy.
Many experts attributed his last defeat to Pacquiao — the one that squared their head-to-head match-up — to the three-time world champion?s problems in meeting the super featherweight limit.
Pacquiao?s American trainer, Freddie Roach, criticized his training regimen, saying Morales was working out to meet the weight instead of preparing to fight. But Pacquiao believes Morales has trained well enough to meet the scales and put up a good fight in their scheduled 12-rounder.
