LAS VEGAS ? Manny Pacquiao appears bored with the long wait and the never-ending Q&As with the media for Saturday night?s rematch with Juan Manuel Marquez.
Pacquiao put on a show for the assembled media during Wednesday?s press conference by performing a magic trick using cards and later jammed with a noted Filipino composer using an electric guitar at his high-end suite at the Mandalay Bay.
As he nears the completion of an eight-week training camp, Pacquiao just went through the motions of running in the morning and working out at the IBA Compound on Euclid Street in the afternoon, looking every inch the fighter trainer Freddie Roach wanted for somebody like Marquez.
“His weight is in check. He weighed in at 131 lbs after the workout,” said Roach, his face glowing since Pacquiao is right on track in getting down to the super-featherweight limit of 130 lbs when the official weighin is held Friday.
During the lunchtime affair with the press, Pacquiao was requested to shuffle the cards in front of a Mexican TV camera but the 29-year-old Filipino sensation did more than that.
Pacquiao asked the TV man to pick two cards from the entire stack without him seeing them and after a few clever moves, showed the wide-eyed guy the same cards that he had earlier selected.
Moments before, Pacquiao had been on the podium standing side-by-side and face-to-face with Marquez as cameras clicked continuosly and there was even one instance when he let out a hearty laugh when one of the Filipino boxers seeing action in the undercard-super-flyweight Diosdado Gabi–was asked to say something on the dais.
Gabi tried to his best to come up with the right words in English but the pint-sized puncher from Kidapawan, North Cotabato, obviously struck with stage fright, fumbled all the way, sending the crowd, Pacquiao and Top Rank boss Bob Arum, and everyone on the stage in stitches.
But what later caught the fancy of those close to Pacquiao was the jamming session that the fighter did with Lito Camo with the sound of their guitars blaring across the hallway of the 61st floor.
While most fighters just isolate themselves from people in the final days leading to a fight, Pacquiao was the exact opposite.
A steady stream of people came up to see Pacquiao and wished him well and even trainer Freddie Roach did not protest with the arrival of fans who simply wanted to see their idol in the flesh.
The atmosphere at the suite was light and bubbly that you?d never thought that Pacquiao was not crossing paths with one of boxing?s most outstanding counter-punchers in a matter of days.
On Thursday (Friday in Manila), Pacquiao will wake up at 7 a.m. to jog at the University of Nevada-Las Vegas oval then drive to the gym for his afternoon training session, the last to be done since reporting for training at Roach?s Wild Card Boxing Club on Jan. 16.
NOTES: Visiting hours at Manny Pacquiao?s suite is from 8 to 9 a.m. and 7 to 8:30 p.m. daily. But it is hardly enforced based on the presence of visitors, some of them autograph-seekers, during times outside the window period…Cris Aquino, the perennial flag-carrier of Pacquiao, has arrived in Sin City…There will be three Filipino politicians who have been given access to join Pacquiao on top of the ring after the fight, Top Rank publicist Lee Samuels said on Wednesday. Their identities have yet to be known…Those who won?t be able to score tickets at the box office will have to be content with watching it either on pay-per-view for locals at .95 or on closed-circuit for tourists at a pop. Promoters expect a sellout at the 12,000-seat Events Center.
