LAS VEGAS — Manny Pacquiao will get up sometime late Saturday morning in his hotel suite and eat some steamed rice and chicken, washed down with water that his aides make sure is room temperature or warmer. ADVERTISING LAS VEGAS
LAS VEGAS — Manny Pacquiao will get up sometime late Saturday morning in his hotel suite and eat some steamed rice and chicken, washed down with water that his aides make sure is room temperature or warmer.
Floyd Mayweather Jr. will have breakfast at his mini-mansion on the Southern Highlands golf course, then go over in his mind once again how the biggest fight of his life might play out.
Fight day is always a lonely time for boxers. The day of reckoning has finally arrived, and there’s little more than can be done to prepare, even when it’s the richest fight in boxing history.
“Floyd’s favorite saying is ‘It’s going to be what it’s going to be,” Mayweather’s promoter, Leonard Ellerbe said. “He knows in his mind that he’s done everything he has needed to do. He knows he’ll be prepared.”
Both fighters have done this so much that it’s second nature. Mayweather will be fighting for the 48th time in his pro career, while Pacquiao has been in 64 fights.
None of them, of course have paid so handsomely — Mayweather will make an estimated $180 million and Pacquiao $120 million — or been in a fight so anticipated.
“This is probably the most lonely hours they’ve ever had in their lives,” said former heavyweight champion George Foreman. “There’s no one truly to talk this over with. I remember how lonely it was for me and the bigger the fight the greater the conversation you have with yourself. It’s lonely, more than lonely.”
Pacquiao, who is staying at a hotel just down the Las Vegas Strip from the MGM Grand arena, will have a Bible study session on the day of the fight, trainer Freddie Roach said. He’ll also go for a walk to get some fresh air, which could cause some consternation among tourists on the Strip who might see him passing by.
“It’s pretty much a normal day,” Roach said. “But I don’t like people to stay inside all day and get a little groggy.”
Ellerbe said Mayweather will spend his day talking to members of his entourage and putting together the bag he brings his fight gear and other clothes in.
“When I say he’s got his bag packed, he’s got his bag packed,” Ellerbe said. “He’s a perfectionist with everything he does. He’s got everything planned out. He’s OCD from socks to toothpaste to the suit he will wear after the fight.”
Ellerbe said once Mayweather is ready to go early Saturday evening, he might just pick a car out of his collection and drive to the arena himself.
“It’s like he’s going out to dinner somewhere,” Ellerbe said. “He’ll drive 10-12 miles down the road, go in the ring and kick some behind, collect a check and go back to the house and have a party. He does it in that order.”
