Freddie Roach will have to wait a few more days before he sees Manny Pacquiao reporting for duty.
Pacquiao, who is scheduled to face Marco Antonio Barrera on Oct. 6 in Las Vegas, will not make it to Los Angeles on the first day of August as his American trainer had hoped all along.
Pacquiao will not take tonight’s PAL flight to Los Angeles because his companions, trainers Buboy Fernandez and Nonoy Neri, and lawyer Geng Gacal, couldn’t join him.
Jake Joson, the chief of staff of the Filipino boxer, said he tried hard to book tickets for the three. But the earliest available seats come on Aug. 16 for the economy class, and Aug. 8 for the business class.
Pacquiao travels first class which, according to PAL’s ticketing office last night, is also fully booked until tomorrow
“We’re looking at Aug. 5. Things are being worked out for all four of them,” Joson said, adding that Pacquiao himself had wanted to begin his training as soon as possible.
Pacquiao was originally scheduled to fly to the US last July 3 but had to postpone the trip, saying it was too early to be there. Another trip was called off two weeks later.
Then last July 23, Pacquiao once again failed to take a flight to the US for a scheduled press conference at the post Beverly Hills Hotel. Barrera was supposed to be there, too.
Top Rank, which is co-promoting the coming fight with Golden Boy, said “a conflict with Manny Pacquiao’s schedule” forced the promoters to reset the press conference to a later date.
Normally, Pacquiao trains eight weeks for a big fight.
But his failure to get to the US on the first day of August might force him to train doubly hard in a shorter period of time.
“He’s got to start training,” Roach was quoted as saying as early as last week.
