LAS VEGAS ? Despite his many triumphs, Manny Pacquiao is still seen by some individuals in the sport of boxing as being one-dimensional.
Saturday night (Sunday morning in Manila), Pacquiao gets the chance not only to prove them all wrong but to give credence to men who would someday mention his name in the same breath as those of the fight game?s all-time greats.
Pacquiao clashes for the third time with Erik Morales before a sellout crowd of 17,000 fans at the Thomas and Mack Center and more than 14,000 miles away in his homeland of the Philippines, traffic is going to stand still, morning church-goers will opt to attend the afternoon service and the crime rate in the hours the fight is being shown on TV should register a zero incidence.
While the atmosphere in Sin City would remain lively and upbeat as during other weekends, the arena where Pacquiao and Morales will slug it out will be rocked to its foundations as they both promised to put on show that ringsiders believe the two could give.
“This is it. Heto na ang pinakahihintay natin,” said Pacquiao three hours after weighing-in officially at 129 lbs.
“Suntukan na,” said Pacquiao, looking very calm and confident the scheduled 12-rounder will go his way.
“Para magka-alaman na kung totoo yung sinasabi niya (Morales),” said the 27-year-old southpaw.
Pacquiao was obviously referring to Morales? claims that the reason why he lost by 10th round knockout last January was that he did not train properly and he was more exhausted than stung by Pacquiao?s punches.
Morales, however, did not look like someone who was slated to go to war in 24 hours as he showed up during the weigh-in as if he had gone on a hunger strike. To get down to such level, Morales had to undergo a weight reduction program at the Velocity Sports Performance in Los Angeles.
The 30-year-old Tijuana native, who had previously won world titles in three weight categories, including the 130-lb category, also tipped in at 129 lbs, which surprised a lot of jaded observers of the sport.
Unlike in the rematch, Morales did not even have to take off his underwear when he stepped on the scales as he was wearing a light-colored boxer shorts.
When it was declared that he had made it, Morales pointed to his flexed right arm to signal that he was A-Okay, sending the pro-Morales gallery into a frenzy which gathered at the Cox Concourse inside the UNLV campus.
Pacquiao was actually roundly booed when he surfaced wearing a jacket, jogging pants and sandals and shortly after weighing in, he flexed his muscles as he had done in previous weigh-ins to the delight of his fans who were bunched together with their Mexican counterparts.
When Pacquiao and Morales were told to pose beside each other, the two did not shake hands and did not even bother to look at each other as though the slight glance would prompt one of them to strike.
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NOTES: Manny Pacquiao ate beef nilaga, chicken, rice and fruits after the weighin. He was scheduled to eat another meal just before hitting the sack and should be around 140 lbs when he gets up the ring? In a rarity, Pacquiao requested that autograph-signing be halted momentarily so he could relax his hands. Inside his room, people came in holding boxing memorabilia and other stuff… Vic Drakulich will be the third man on the ring while the three judges are Glenn Towbridge, Duane Ford and Guido Cavlieri. The fight supervisors are Rex Walker and Robert Lenhardt? Brian Viloria will try to regain his WBC light-flyweight title against Omar Nino Romero in the undercard. Two other Filipinos are seeing action. They are super-bantamweights Ernel Fontanilla and Bernabe Concepcion.
