Pacquiao wants to fight in PH next

Manny Pacquiao grants an interview to Philippine media inside the Wild Card Gym in Hollywood, CA on Monday afternoon, 20 April 2015. PHOTO BY REM ZAMORA

LAS VEGAS – Whatever happens in Las Vegas, Manny Pacquiao prefers to take it out of Las Vegas.

As he continued tapering down from his training for his May 2 showdown with Floyd Mayweather Jr, in Las Vegas, the Filipino champion expressed his preference to fight next at home.

“Why not?’ Pacquiao replied to a suggestion that he fight in the Philippines after his battle with Mayweather to promote the Philippines as a tourism destination and give more Filipino fans a chance to see him fight.

“We have the venue, like the Philippine Arena. That can be arranged. I’d like to be able to do that before I retire from boxing,’’ Pacquiao said after his morning run in the hills of Griffith Park overlooking the city of Los Angeles.

In separate interviews with Philippine television networks ABS-CBN and GMA7, Pacquiao talked briefly on various topics, including retirement and his evolution as a fighter.

He said he became a much better fighter when he evolved from a one-punch southpaw to a two-fisted attacker in the hands of trainer Freddie Roach, who developed his right hand to make him a complete fighter.

“I became a better and an experienced fighter,’’ he said.

Pacquiao said he plans to concentrate on his work as a public servant and devote more time to his family when he finally decides to retire from boxing. However, the 36-year old Pacquiao, a veteran of 64 professional fights in two decades of boxing, did not say when he would finally hang up his gloves.

The two-term representative of Sarangani did not say if he would seek higher office, but he expressed the hope that he would see the time when there would be no more Filipinos who would suffer in poverty.

Pacquiao had been fighting mostly out of the country since he rose to stardom with a sensational knockout of Marco Antonio Barrera of Mexico in Las Vegas in 2003. The last time Pacquiao fought in the Philippines was when he decisioned Oscar Larios also of Mexico over 12 rounds at the Araneta Coliseum.