By Ronnie Nathanielsz
Team Pacquiao member Lito Mondejar who usually travels to Los Angeles with Ring Magazine featherweight champion Manny Pacquiao to supervise his training at the Wild Card Gym of Freddie Roach and to generally keep an eye on the flamboyant Filipino yesterday disclosed that he won’t be leaving with Pacquiao who is scheduled to depart for Los Angeles on January 8 with Filipino trainer Buboy Fernandez.
Mondejar told Viva Sports/Manila Standard that he couldn’t stand the cold weather at this time of the year and would leave on the first week of February. Mondejar said he was confident there would be enough time to make sure that Pacquiao gets into top shape for the February 26 rematch with WBA/IBF champion Juan Manuel Marquez. Mondejar conceded that Marquez was "a very good fighter" and that he would be probably in better shape this time around because he has been training at an altitude of 10,000 feet for the past month in order to strengthen his resistance to the devastating power of Pacquiao who decked him three times in the forst round in their showdown last May.
Informed that Pacquiao hadn’t begun training because of the Christmas season amidst reports that he was seen at a cockfighting derby in Davao City where he had an entry, Mondejar said that "if he leaves on January 8 it will be enough time because when he starts training in LA Manny trains really hard. I am confident he will be ready on February 26."
