WITH A little over a month left, the regulars at the Wild Card Boxing Club in Hollywood are asking why Manny Pacquiao has yet to arrive.
According to maxboxing.com, Australian conditioning coach Justin Fortune, the right-hand of Freddie Roach at the Wild Card, wonders why it’s taking this long for Pacquiao to show up for training in preparation for an April 14 face-off with undefeated Mexican Jorge Solis.
“Where the hell is Manny? It’s the $ 64,000 question,” Fortune told frequent Wild Card visitor Steve Kim of maxboxing, who was among those who thought that Pacquiao would arrive in Los Angeles on the night of March 6.
Fortune had been told that Pacquiao would now make himself appear on March 16, just in time to watch buddy Gerry Penalosa’s ambitious title shot in Las Vegas the following day.
“This is the plan, I’m not sure about it because I haven’t spoken to him,” Fortune added.
According to Nonoy Neri, who attends to Pacquiao’s daily workouts at the ABAP Gym in General Santos City, they will fly to the US on March 17.
“Next Saturday,” Neri told the Bulletin late yesterday afternoon when asked when Pacquiao is going to America.
Neri also excitedly disclosed that Pacquiao floored the bigger Jesar Ancahas with a left uppercut during a session Thursday.
“Manny’s sharp in training,” said Neri.
Roach is currently training Oscar De La Hoya in Puerto Rico that’s why Fortune will be in charge of Pacquiao’s training.
Roach, however, said Pacquiao not to take Solis for granted, insisting that that Solis also hits hard.
Solis holds a 32-0-2 win-loss-draw slate with 23 knockouts.
While those at the Wild Card are worried, Top Rank big boss Bob Arum doesn’t sound as though the roof is about to cave in, pointing to media reports from the Philippines that Pacquiao is training hard for the Solis showdown that is penciled at the Alamodome in San Antonio, Texas.
Arum said the Pacquiao-Solis bout is green and go and he expects 20,000 seats at the Alamodome will be filled.
“He’s taken an advance,” Arum told maxboxing from San Antonio where he Pacquiao, meanwhile, will spar for eight rounds this afternoon at the Abap Gym under the watchful eyes of Neri and another training assistant Buboy Fernandez.
