Looking trim and confident, Manny Pacquiao arrived to a “grand gala” welcome on Monday at the Wynn Las Vegas for his showdown Saturday (Sunday in Manila) against Erik Morales, which headlines “The Battle” boxing card at the Thomas and Mack Center in Las Vegas, Nevada.
Arriving with his entourage on a drive straight from his training camp in Los Angeles, the World Boxing Council International super featherweight champion was a few hours late of schedule for the welcome rites, but made up for it by flashing a bright smile as the media interviewed him.
Meanwhile, Morales, scheduled to arrive Tuesday (Wednesday in Manila) at the same resort hotel and casino on the Las Vegas Strip from his hometown of Tijuana, Mexico, told a California-based daily he is out to regain “some credibility” by beating the Filipino icon for the second time.
“The last fight was an embarrassment,” said Morales, noting his lackluster loss to former US Olympian Zahir Raheem in a lightweight fight on September 10, 2005, in Los Angeles—on the same night when Pacquiao stopped Hector Velazquez in six rounds.
“I have to get some credibility back in my career [with a repeat victory over Pacquiao],” he told The Press Enterprise, a newspaper based in Riverside, California, in a story posted on the daily’s website.
“You never know if that [loss to Raheem] was a signal that Erik Morales is sliding down,” famed trainer Roberto Garcia, a former world champion, also told The Press Enterprise in the same article. “It could be.”
A three-time world champion, Morales posted a unanimous decision victory over “PacMan” in their first encounter on March 19, 2005, at the MGM Grand Hotel and Casino also in Las Vegas.
“He’s a great fighter who intimidates people,” he said of Pacquiao to The Press Enterprise. “I know he’s a good fighter, but I learned he’s not as strong as people think.”
But the defeat to Raheem, in which “El Terrible” appeared flabby and uninspired, was the second in three fights for the Mexican legend, who also lost the WBC 130-pound division title to countryman Marco Antonio Barrera in their third fight on November 27, 2004.
A year before that fight, Barrera had been picked apart by Pacquiao in San Antonio, Texas, a victory that launched “The Destroyer” into the boxing stratosphere.
Ironically, the winner of Pacquiao-Morales 2 earns the right to challenge Barrera for the WBC and International Boxing Federation belts he now holds.
“Manny thought he could do the same thing to Erik that he did to Barrera,” Freddie Roach, Pacquiao’s trainer, told The Press Enterprise at his Wild Card gym in Hollywood, California. “He learned his lesson.”
