Don’t expect to see Manny Pacquiao in commercial flights anymore unless he is bound for the US or somewhere in a foreign land.
San Miguel Corporation has given the go-signal the use of a Lear jet for Pacquiao’s domestic travels.
“They don’t want me to take commercial flights anymore,” Pacquiao told Tempo yesterday before he boarded the plane out of Manila.
Pacquiao has been crisscrossing the archipelago when he is in the Philippines, using Philippine Airlines, one of his major backers, to head back home to General Santos City. He also frequently travels to Davao, Cebu and Bacolod City via the flag-carrier.
Not anymore, according to a boxing man who has close ties with Pacquiao.
“The blessing that he’s been receiving is unimaginable,” said Cebu kingmaker Wakee Salud, who hardly stays away from Pacquiao be it here and overseas.
A press conference is scheduled sometime this week with Pacquiao formally announcing his life-long partnership with San Miguel Corporation.
Meanwhile, reports from the US reveal that the rubber match between Pacquiao and Erik Morales will take place on Sept. 16 probably at the Sam Boyd Stadium in Las Vegas, the home of the University of Nevada-Las Vegas football team.
ESPN’s Dan Rafael, former USA Today’s man on the boxing beat, said the initial work on the third fight is already in motion.
Quoting promoter Bob Arum of Top Rank, Rafael said that Morales, who was stopped for the first time in his career by Pacquiao last Jan. 21 at the Thomas and Mack Center, is aching to get back at Pacquiao.
Arum said the weight limit would be 132 lbs since Morales definitely experiences difficulties making the super-featherweight limit of 130 lbs.
“He has exercised his option. He didn’t want to take the time off. He said, ‘I want to fight him again. I know what I did wrong.’
What he did wrong was he blew himself up [in weight] and then in going down he expended all of his energy losing the weight,” Arum told Rafael.
In preparation for the big-money third bout with Morales, Pacquiao will be allowed to take a tuneup fight probably in Manila in May or June with HBO televising it.
