By Ronnie Nathanliesz

Ring Magazine featherweight champion Manny Pacquiao left for Davao  City early yesterday to buckle down to serious training for his December 11 tune-up fight with Thailand's Fahsang 3K Battery in a fight card titled Yanig sa Taguig to be staged at an open air arena in The Fort with Smart, Talk N Text and Solar Sports as the financial backers with Taguig Mayor Freddie Tinga as host.

Pacquiao arrived in Manila from his hometown of General Santos shortly before noon on Tuesday to sign a contract with ABS-CBN for a reality boxing show headlined by Pacquiao and action star Robin Padilla and patterned after similar TV shows in the US. The show is expected to be launched early next year. After the contract signing Pacquiao taped several radio spots promoting the December 11 bout at the Hit Productions recording studio in Makati City.

Pacquiao told Viva Sports/Manila Standard that he had decided to train at the Almedras Gym in Davao City instead of in Manila because he wanted to do his roadwork running up the mountains. Pacquiao said Philippine lightweight champion Fernando Montilla would travel with him and serve as his main sparring partner while Montilla's manager Lito Mondejar, a member of Team Pacquiao, would handle his training until Pacquiao's regular trainer Buboy Fernandez returns from Los Angeles after the November 12 US debut of Bobby Pacquiao, the Philippines super featherweight champion who is ranked No. 1 by the Orient Pacific Boxing Federation.

Although Pacquiao appeared overweight, the flamboyant featherweight insisted he weighed 130 pounds and would be trim and sharp when he returns to Manila one week before the fight. Pacquiao indicated he planned on stepping up his training beginning today and said, looking ahead, that he realized  the rematch with Juan Manuel Marquez (the reigning WBA/IBF champion) would be a hard fight' although Pacquiao said he was certain Marquez was scared after the three first round knockdowns' in their first meeting last May.

While Pacquiao said that while he was not underestimating Fahsang who has beaten over twenty Filipino fighters, a majority via knockout, he was confident that his speed and punching power' would be too much for the Thai who has been billed as The Destroyer of Filipinos.