IF YOU think Manny Pacquiao is the only one making a supreme sacrifice, think again.
With exactly a month remaining before they square off in a rematch, Erik Morales told the Mexican media yesterday that it is difficult for him to stay away from his loved ones during the Christmas and New Year holidays as he revs up for the Jan. 21 meeting with Pacquiao.
“Es triste, pero es parte del trabajo (It is sad, but it is part of work),” Morales was quoted as saying from his training camp in Queretaro, some 200 kilometers northwest of Mexico City.
This is the first time Morales will be separated from his family in Tijuana during the Yuletide season.
Save for one minor fight that he won on Jan. 21, 1994 in Tijuana, where he bludgeoned Paul Olvera, Morales hasn’t fought in the month of January.
Pacquiao has fought twice in January, but these took place when he was still a beginner back in the mid-1990s.
Pacquiao has also decided to leave his family in the Philippines and train hard at the Wild Card Boxing Club in Hollywood, California. He’s been working out at Freddie Roach’s sweat shop since Dec. 3.
The Filipino is itching to get back at Morales in what could be another slambang face-off at the Thomas and Mack Center in Las Vegas. The first time they met, Morales emerged victorious with a 115-113 decision on all the three judges’s scorecards.
Pacquiao is coming off a dramatic knockout victory in his last fight, while Morales wants to erase the stigma of his last outing, a point loss to Zahir Raheem on Sept. 10 at the Staples Center in Los Angeles when he and Pacquiao co-headlined a huge Top Rank promotion.
