Pacquiao starts hectic tour

NEW YORK – Manny Pacquiao yesterday admitted that if he’d fight Miguel Cotto today he’d end up losing.

“Kung ngayon ang laban talo tayo (If the fight were to be held today I would lose),” said Pacquiao as he took the back-breaking 18-hour plane ride from Manila to Hong Kong to this city that never sleeps, a day ahead of the launch of his whirldwind press tour with the WBA welterweight champion from Puerto Rico.

However, Pacquiao said Cotto having gone four weeks ahead in training shouldn’t really matter by the time they climb the ring and throw bombs at each other on Nov. 14 at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas. The fight is set at 145 lb, the lowest Cotto would be in quite a while.

“Ganyan naman palagi. Nauuna mag-train ang mga kalaban natin (It’s always been like that. My opponents have gone training way ahead),” said Pacquiao who never failed to draw the attention at the airport as he towed a very lean entourage joining him in the weeklong trip.

Pacquiao said eight weeks, nothing more, nothing less, should get him in fighting form, as he hoped to draw the same result he enjoyed in his recent fights with David Diaz, Oscar dela Hoya and Ricky Hatton, who all went down crashing against the Pinoy icon.

Pacquiao arrived at the JFK Airport in New York a little past 1 p.m. and was whisked to the Loews Regency on affluent Park Avenue on board a black Navigator. Joining him in the hotel are his advisers Mike Koncz and Franklin Gacal and training assistant Roger Fernandez.

A few hours later, Cotto flew in from Puerto Rico with his conditioning coach Phil Landman, and stayed at the Le Parker Meridien. He was welcomed by Top Rank pointmen Ricardo Jimenez, Lee Samuel and Jim McConnon, and was in a jolly mood, not as tired as Pacquiao.

He had time to speak to Pinoy scribes who waited for his arrival.

Cotto, the champion at 147 lb, said he’d been training for the last four weeks, but even if he’d sparred three times, he wasn’t at the gym six or seven days a week. Jimenez said training meant some morning runs and a lot of conditioning exercises just to get Cotto in the groove.

“I’m taking some base for the hard weeks to come,” said Cotto who horsed around with Landman at the lobby as they waited for their room assignments. Cotto looked cool in his long-sleeve shirt, tight pants, Ferragamo shoes and a bulging metal watch, and carried a backpack.

Cotto said he doesn’t mind if Pacquiao hasn’t started training, because each boxer has his own style.

“He has to train by himself. I just train for my own benefit – what is best for my career. I just want the space for the hard weeks ahead. I don’t train the full week. And I just sparred like three times in those four weeks,” said the Puerto Rican, who admitted being at 159 to 161 pounds.

Notes: This whirldwind press tour is not for the weak, Top Rank publicist Ricardo Jimenez, former sports editor of La Opinion, said Wednesday. “You will see that the tour moves pretty fast — with all the jumping in and out of the plane,” he said, adding that Pacquiao would have used one of two days here before the tour which begins Thursday with an onfield (first-base) press conference at the Yankee Stadium at noon. Then by 2:30 p.m., Pacquiao and Cotto will be in a photo-shoot for the fight commercials and posters, and that would keep them until 7 p.m. On Friday, some more photo-ops and glove-signing are set in the morning, and then Pacquiao will have a round-table with the New York Times sports department before leaving for San Juan, Puerto Rico at 7 p.m. The Puerto Rico gig is set at 11 a.m. Saturday and by 4 p.m. everybody flies to Atlanta on way to San Francisco and should be there by midnight. Sunday is another presscon following the Giants-Dodgers match at the AT&T Park and by 6 p.m. Team Pacquiao leaves for Los Angeles and the Beverly Hotel where the boxers will undergo medical before holding another presscon at 4 p.m. Cotto flies back to Puerto Rico Monday evening, while Pacquiao stays on for one last gig set Tuesday at the Petco Park in San Diego where he will do the ceremonial toss for the Padres vs Cardinals at 7 p.m. By 10:55 p.m., just a couple of hours later, Pacquiao and his party board a Philippine Airlines flight to Manila.