Pacquiao starts training

Back to the gym.

Starting today, Manny Pacquiao will spend more time on the ring as he takes the initial step in his preparation for his awaited Nov. 18 encounter with Mexico’s Erik Morales.

Pacquiao, who was in Vegas last week to sign a $3 million fight contract with Morales, was in Manila last Friday to open his newest business, the Knockout Bar and Grill at Baywalk.

The flamboyant 27-year-old fighter yesterday flew to Gen. Santos City, his hometown in the south, and vowed to start training today at a local gym owned by a close friend.

Buboy Fernandez, Pacquiao’s Filipino trainer, said it was the boxer himself who decided that today would be the start of the long grind toward the rubber match against Morales.

"It was Manny himself who wanted it. He just told me that this Monday would be the start," said Fernandez during the opening of the Pacquiao place at Baywalk.

Pacquiao, now weighing around 140 lbs, will run daily and do some gym work, too, as he hopes to be in better shape by the time he goes to Cebu by the end of the month.

Pacquiao will spend a week or two in Cebu and will train daily at the gym owned by Tony Aldeguer, another good friend of the Filipino boxing icon.

Then probably by the middle of September, Pacquiao flies to the US for at least eight full weeks of training at the Wild Card Gym in Hollywood, under Freddie Roach.

Pacquiao is expected at ringside when Marco Antonio Barrera stakes his WBC super-featherweight crown against Rocky Juarez on Sept. 16 at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas.

Morales is in the US undergoing a weight-reduction program. Probably weighing 150 lbs, he hopes to move closer to the 130 lb limit by the time he flies home next month.