Silent, elusive Morales arrives

LAS VEGAS — Erik Morales was slippery as an eel Monday evening, granting no interviews and turning his back on Filipino mediamen who waited for two hours for his arrival at the Wynn Hotel here.

Morales needed several hours to get to Las Vegas from Mexico. He boarded a private plane from Toluca for Texas for a brief customs inspection before flying to Las Vegas.

From the Vegas airport, Morales was whisked to the extravagant Wynn Hotel on board a black Ford Excursion. He arrived shortly after 11 p.m. with a handful team members, including his father-trainer Jose.

But instead of facing the media, a practice which he’d done days before his first two fights with Manny Pacquiao, Morales walked straight to the hotel lobby and into a waiting elevator.

Wearing a safari jacket, blue jeans and casual shoes, and holding a cellular phone, Morales leaned his head sideways each time a camera was held near him.

Morales’ face looked thin and not really gaunt. But nothing can be said of his body since he appeared to be wearing probably three layers of clothing.

His eyes, however, looked sharp as ever.

Pacquiao was already tucked in by the time Morales stepped into the hotel. The Filipino slugger arrived in Vegas Sunday afternoon.

Morales has been having great difficulty making the 130 lb weight limit for the coming fight. And if he’s still over the limit, then he has less than five days to make it.

Morales will hold a press workout on Wednesday at the Top Rank Gym here in Vegas, then the final press conference on Thursday and the official weigh-in on Friday at Wynn Hotel.

Even ABS-CBN sportscaster Dyan Castillejo, who speaks fluent Spanish, failed to get a word with Morales whom she had visited in his training camp in the Otomi mountains a month ago.

Cameraman Rene Casibang of ABS-CBN, however, got hold of some footages of Morales up until the elevator door closed.

Earlier in the evening, Ricardo Jimenez of Top Rank gave out some details of Morales’ arrival, but said the 30-year-old boxer had no plans of being interviewed by the media.