In yet another unscheduled break from training, pound-for-pound king Manny Pacquiao will fly to Las Vegas today to attend a political rally for Senate president Harry Reid, a close friend of promoter Bob Arum.
Arum told the Inquirer that Pacquiao’s presence at the Reid rally could influence a sizeable Filipino-American community and help tilt the balance in favor of the Democrat Senate president, who is said to be facing the fight of his political life.
Pacquiao himself has said that he is facing the toughest fight of his career in his WBC super welterweight title showdown against Antonio Margarito on Nov. 13 at the Dallas Cowboys Stadium in Arlington, Texas.
But his attitude doesn’t seem to match his concern.
A day after planing in from Manila last Saturday, the “Fighter of the Decade,” instead of resting, drove to San Diego to coach his ragtag basketball team against some high school kids.
Even Arum had earlier described as “the worst” Pacquiao’s training camp in Baguio, where the Filipino champ played basketball nightly and drove down to Manila on two successive weekends to attend various events as part of his status as Sarangani congressman.
At a crowded media workout at the Wild Card Gym yesterday, Pacquiao performed in his customary exhilarating manner on the punch mitts with trainer Freddie Roach. Conditioning coach Alex Ariza described the workout as “quite good.”
Roach had the media laughing when he took a dig at Margarito by donning a pair of armored gloves and said, “I am going to make sure that Margarito wears hand wraps not gift wraps when he faces Manny.”
Margarito was suspended one year by the California State Athletic Commission when it was discovered before his fight against Shane Mosley in January last year that his hand wraps were tampered with and contained a substance believed to be plaster of Paris.
Another cause for concern among Pacquiao supporters is the fact that Pacquiao has stopped his strength and conditioning regimen that was designed to build his body and reinforce his ability to take the big shots of the bigger and taller Margarito.
Pacquiao is reportedly concentrating all his efforts on accentuating his speed, which he believes will be the key to beating Margarito.