When Manny Pacquiao sets foot on Las Vegas for his upcoming fight with Erik Morales, out there waiting for him, aside from probably a pack of fans and some media, is the chilly, biting, ice-cold weather. An Internet check on the Las Vegas weather over the next 10 days showed a daily forecast ranging from a low of four, three, two and one degrees Celsius and a high of at least 15 over the weekend.
Pacquiao is still in faraway Los Angeles wrapping up his training under the watchful eyes of Freddie Roach at the Wildcard Boxing Gym in Hollywood and Vine St.
The American trainer owns the gym. Pacquiao said he plans to go to Las Vegas on the 16th or five days before his rematch with Morales. The 12-round, non-title fight is set at the Thomas and Mack Center inside the UNLV campus.
It is not clear yet whether Pacquiao would take the shorter plane ride from LA to Vegas or the three-to-four-hour ride by car, which he took last March for his first meeting with Morales.
The Morales camp had said that the Mexican three-time world champion is planning to go to Vegas on the 19th.
He will fly in to Sin City in great style on board his private jet.
But however Pacquiao gets there, he will be in for a “very cold” welcome.
On the 16th, in fact, it will be close to zero degrees in Vegas, meaning Pacquiao will have to put on some winter clothes, probably the all-black, Matrix-like get-up he tried on last March.
Pacquiao said the other day he’s ready to take it all, including Morales and the Vegas weather.
“I am really doing well. Tinitiis ko ang hirap sa ensayo dahil alam kong mabigat ang laban,” said the Filipino boxing icon who stands to receive $2 million, his biggest purse ever, for this fight.
Pacquiao said his sparring sessions would end in LA, and that when he gets to Vegas, “he would no longer spar but will continue to train.”
The official hotel of the fight, billed as “The Battle,” is Wynn Las Vegas, the newest and now said to be the most expensive hotel in the bright and famous Vegas strip.
The hotel, which cost $2.7 billion to build, has 2,700 rooms, 18 restaurants, a golf course which would set you back $500 a round and a giant pool, among others.
Rooms cost $299 on weekdays and $499 on weekends. Also making it extra-ordinary is the fact that it’s the only hotel in Vegas, or probably the entire US, with its own Ferrari-Maserati dealership inside the premises.
This Pacquiao, who recently bought himself a Porsche, has got to see.
