MANNY PACQUIAO is now in Mexico City to promote his March 19 face-off with Erik Morales at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas.
“He left this morning (Tuesday night in Los Angeles),” said Pacquiao?s business manager, Rod Nazario, who is in Manila. “He will be there for just one day to promote the fight.”
Pacquiao was joined in the three-and-a-half hour trip by trainer Freddie Roach and training assistant Buboy Fernandez. Pacquiao is expected to be back in Hollywood on Wednesday night (Thursday morning in Manila) just in time to fetch wife Jinkee and son Emmanuel Jr. at LAX the next day.
Jinkee and Emmanuel Jr. are flying to Los Angeles at 10 p.m. tonight via Philippine Airlines. They are expected to return to Manila on Feb. 5.
“Isang araw lang siya sa Mexico para lang i-promote ang laban nila ni Morales,” said Jinkee.
Top Rank and M&M Sports arranged the trip to Mexico as part of their publicity campaign for the scheduled 12-round superfeatherweight clash on HBO Pay-Per-View.
Pacquiao is expected to be jeered during his public appearance there since he has gained some sort of notoriety for being the conqueror of Mexican fighters, the most famous being the revered Marco Antonio Barrera.
Pacquiao?s other Mexican victims include Gabriel Mira and Emmanuel Lucero. Last year, he almost bludgeoned World Boxing Association and International Boxing Federation (IBF) feather ruler Juan Manuel Marquez, who went down thrice in the first round but miraculously survived.
Mira went down when he tried to wrest Pacquiao?s World Boxing Council flyweight title in Manila in April 1999, while Lucero was stopped in three rounds when he dared to take the GenSan lefty?s IBF super-bantam belt in July 2003 in Los Angeles.
