Pacquiao hot for revenge in cold Vegas

LAS VEGAS — Manny Pacquiao arrived at the fabulous Wynn Las Vegas late Monday evening with the highest of hopes that he could settle an old score with Mexico’s Erik Morales when they lock horns on Saturday.

"I’ve done everything I could in training that’s why I’m confident. So whatever happens here, there will be no excuses," he said earlier in the day.

Pacquiao brought with him positive results of a rigid six-week training at the Wild Card Gym in Los Angeles. He was proud to say that he has developed some new techniques he would throw against Morales who beat him last March.

The Filipino slugger who’s in his ninth fight in the US in five years left Los Angeles late in the afternoon and arrived here in Sin City before 10 p.m.

He was greeted at Wynn’s grand lobby by some fans and journalists, including a Filipino television crew.

It is very cold here in Las Vegas where the temperature is expected to stay close to zero degrees at least from today until the night of the fight.

A digital temperature reading in one of the cars that joined Pacquiao from LA read "—2 ice" as it entered Las Vegas. Pacquiao stepped out of his brand-new Porsche Cayenne in a black wool jacket, dark pants and leather shoes.

At around 11 a.m., Pacquiao sparred for four rounds against two different boxers at the Wild Card Gym. Those were the last of close to 130 rounds of sparring.

Pacquiao held his punches in his final rounds of sparring, which was opened to the public. At times he played and fooled around with his sparmates and seemed to have had fun doing it.

His trainer Freddie Roach watched from the corner as the four rounds went by.

The entire Filipino nation will be behind Pacquiao when he squares off with Morales at the Thomas and Mack Center, which is probably just 10 minutes away from Wynn Las Vegas, the newest and said to be the most expensive hotel here today.

Pacquiao is done with the hard stuff in training, which started last Dec. 3. There’ll be no more sparring for Pacquiao, but light gym work starting Tuesday, a press conference Wednesday and the official weigh-in on Friday.

Morales trained longer than Pacquiao for this fight, at Querataro which is more than a hundred miles off Mexico City. He will leave for Las Vegas Tuesday and will come into the 2,700-room Wynn resort and casino by the day’s end.