Pacquiao Eyes Manila as Venue for Next Fight

General Santos City (PNA) — With barely two years left before his planned retirement from boxing, eight-division world champion and reigning World Boxing Organization (WBO) welterweight king Manny Pacquiao is considering bringing one of his remaining fights to the home crowd.

Pacquiao said he will ask his promoter, Top Rank chief executive officer Bob Arum, to set up a fight in Manila after his scheduled showdown in November with undefeated American brawler Chris Algieri in Macau, China.

“I’ll try to bring one of my next fights here (Philippines). Hopefully I’ll be able to convince (Arum) with that plan,” he told reporters here on Thursday.

Pacquiao, who also represents the lone district of Sarangani in the House of Representatives, returned to the country last Tuesday following a promotional tour for his upcoming with Algieri.

The boxing icon said he will begin his two-month training camp here on Monday in preparation for the November 23 fight, which will be held anew at the Cotai Arena of The Venetian Macao Resort-Hotel.

He will hold conditioning workouts in various venues here and nearby Sarangani while his sparring sessions will be done at the Pacman Wild Card Gymn located in the city’s main commercial district.

Pacquiao had held his training camp in the city in preparation for his November 2013 fight against Brandon Rios in Macau, China.

His conditioning training included pickup basketball games at his gymnasium in Barangay Calumpang as well as early morning runs at the city sports complex and nearby Maasim town in Sarangani.

“I actually started some light conditioning workouts this week but my training will officially start on Monday,” he said.

Hall of Fame boxing coach Freddie Roach is expected to fly to this city later this month to supervise Pacquiao’s training camp.

Roach is a frequent visitor of this city, who formally adopted him last year as an “adopted son.”(PNA) FFC/AVE

Image Credit: www.philshowbiz.com