ERIK MORALES’ special weight reduction training for the Nov. 18 rubber match with Manny Pacquiao is underway and the Mexican fighter is optimistic that the eight-member multi-racial medical team tapped by his promoter Top Rank will not let him down.
Morales is spending eight weeks in Los Angeles under what he described as a group of experts who spend “three to five hours” with the 29-year-old native of Tijuana in making sure Morales makes the superfeatherweight limit of 130 lbs without much difficulty.
“There is an Australian, one from New Zealand, another one from Austria, one from South Africa and North Americans,” Morales told the Mexican media yesterday.
Morales, who barely made the 130-lb limit in the rematch with Pacquiao last January, also spends time in a specialized gymnasium “where I make many exercises and already began the special diet that they have given me and that the objective (of making 130 lbs) will be realized.”
Morales bared that the people hired by Top Rank President Bob Arum are “experienced” and that they have also been involved in the training of Olympic athletes. After the weight training, Morales will proceed to the Otomi Mountains in Mexico in the middle of September for training proper.
Pacquiao, meanwhile, is still living the good life three weeks after coming off a rousing 12-round decision win over Oscar Larios.
The Gensan slugger will be a special guest when President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo makes his State-Of the-Nation-Address this afternoon.
Tomorrow, he will fly to Bacolod City, where a parade will be held in his honor. Pacquiao became an adopted son of the Negros Occidental capital in October last year.
Pacquiao was to perform in a mini-concert last night somewhere in Quezon City.
