Pacquiao off to Los Angeles

MANILA, Philippines - Manny Pacquiao seemed more concerned trying to steer his Kia team to victory last night than he was about the long trip up ahead.

Pacquiao arrived at The Arena in San Juan just moments before tip-off. He was in street clothes and was not ready to play.

Then he flew to Los Angeles past 10 p.m. on board a Philippine Airlines flight, accompanied by his brother, Bobby, and adviser, Mike Koncz.

The rest of his team members, according to Koncz, couldn’t book seats on the same flight but also left for LA last night via Vancouver.

After a hot start, Kia struggled on the floor and trailed Blackwater by as many as 18 points, a mere shadow of the same team that just won two in a row.

The first half ended with Pacquiao’s team trailing, 56-42.

Pacquiao spent most of the first half up on his feet. After Kia threw the ball away at the start of the second half, he ended up scratching his head.

He was not enjoying the game.  

Koncz spoke to reporters during halftime, and said Pacquiao is all set to begin his two-month training at the Wild Card Gym in LA.

Told that Mayweather was scheduled to start training on Monday, Koncz didn’t show any concern at all.

“I’m not worried about when Mayweather would start training,” said Koncz.

“It’s Manny whom I’m concerned with. But there’s no reason to worry because we have a full nine weeks ahead of us,” he added.

When Pacquiao hits the road in LA, it’s not like he’s starting from scratch because he’d been to the gym a number of times the past couple of weeks.

Pacquiao had been playing a lot of basketball lately, and in between he made sure he’d go out running in the morning.

“What’s important is that Manny’s been going to the gym a lot the past few days – plus he’s playing a lot of basketball lately,” said Koncz.

In his first week in the LA, Pacquiao will have to train under Buboy Fernandez because Freddie Roach will be in Zou Shiming’s corner in Macau on March 7.

Roach will try to catch the first plane out of Macau after the Shiming fight in order to hook up with Pacquiao.

Bob Arum told ESPN yesterday he expects the pay-per-view sales for the May 2 showdown to exceed four million buys.

Koncz had very little reaction to the report.

“I’m not going to say anything about it unless the figures are right in front of us,” he said.