LAS VEGAS ? Juan Manuel Marquez was probably holed up in his suite at the MGM Grand when Manny Pacquiao fans made a lot of noise downstairs, welcoming the Filipino icon at the hotel lobby Tuesday noon.
Hundreds of Pacquiao fans, a bunch of them waving a Philippine flag with the words ?Pacquiao for President? on it, chanted ?Man-ny! Man-ny!? as the boxer walked in and inched his way through the crowd.
Surrounded by a dozen friends, and bodyguards, Pacquiao made it to the top of a makeshift ring full of mediamen. It got so heavy at one point cracking sounds were heard and felt like the ring was about to collapse.
Pacquiao waved to the crowd and faced the television cameras, and shortly after he was whisked inside the hotel?s VIP lounge for another set of interviews with the print media. He came with trainer Freddie Roach.
He talked about the coming fight, his third and hopefully the last, against Marquez.
On Saturday, Pacquiao wants to erase all doubts on who?s the better fighter because Marquez, up to this day, claims he won the two previous fights, the controversial draw in 2004 and Pacquiao?s close win in 2008.
Marquez came out in public once wearing a t-shirt with the words ?I beat Pacquiao twice? written in big, bold letters. To Pacquiao, it?s a sign of disrespect, and this, Roach said, must have fired him up even more.
?It?s disrespectful,? Pacquiao told the mediamen who gathered before him.
The fighting congressman from Sarangani in Mindanao was asked why Marquez wearing that t-shirt in public has made him so angry when anybody can put anything on his shirt and wear it.
?The most important thing to me is respect. I?m not mad at him. I?m not mad at anybody. It?s kind of, why, is it not enough that ?. (I beat him twice)?? said Pacquiao, who will put his WBO welterweight title on the line.
?The fight is more personal because of what Marquez did. He embarrassed Manny,? said Roach, who?s been calling for a knockout ever since training camp began in the cold mountains of Baguio last September.
Pacquiao has never been mad at anyone, not even those who?s said nasty things about him. Not even Floyd Mayweather.
