LAS VEGAS ? Not a single word came out from Erik Morales, who arrived here 11 p.m. of Monday (3 p.m. of Tuesday in the Philippines) from Mexico for his do-or-die duel with Manny Pacquiao this weekend at the Thomas and Mack Center.
Morales flew in on a private plane leased by his promoter Top Rank and the journey from where he took off in Toluca, Mexico, lasted several hours since he had to be inspected by US customs in Brownsville, Texas, before being allowed to head straight to Sin City.
Morales is coming off an eight-week training stint in the mountains of Otomi and from there he proceeded to Toluca to be on the plane, according to Top Rank publicist Ricardo Jimenez.
Dressed in khaki-colored jacket, blue jeans and black leather shoes, Morales actually hid from the Philippine media that camped out at the Tower Suites arrival area of Wynn Las Vegas and the 30-year-old many-time champion of the world did not acknowledge the greeting extended by ABS-CBN reporter Dyan Castillejo.
A maroon-colored van actually brought Team Morales to Wynn and had it not been for uniformed members of his camp walking their way to the hotel entrance, Morales would have made it to his suite without being recognized.
Before entering the high-speed Wynn elevator, Morales, carrying a black messenger bag, made a call through his mobile phone and appeared oblivious to the maddening rush by cameraman Rene Casibang as well as three print journalists from the Philippines.
Morales, who is eyeing payback following his eye-popping tenth-round knockout loss to Pacquiao last January at the same arena, arrived with his father Jose “Olivaritos” Morales, who politely declined to answer questions from a handful of Filipino scribes who began camping out at the Wynn starting at 9 p.m.
It could not be determined if Morales was having difficulties going down in weight although it was reported by the World Boxing Council over the weekend that he had weighed 136 lbs. and appeared to be on the right track to weigh 130 or less.
Under the contract, Morales will have to shell out 0,000 for every pound in excess of 130.
Even if Morales goes above the limit by a quarter-of-a-pound, he would still be fined half-a-million dollars.
The official weigh-in will be held on Friday but the public would still get a glance of Morales during three appearances set for Wednesday for his media workout, Thursday for the press conference and weigh-in, both to be staged at the Cox Concourse inside the sprawling University of Nevada-Las Vegas campus.
