Manny dials into trouble

MANNY Pacquiao walks in 45 minutes late and it comes across as outright arrogance.

Even more so when the Filipino champ takes a seat at his press conference at Suncorp Stadium and spends the next 15 minutes on his mobile phone. Who could he be text messaging at a time like this, surrounded by politicians, boxing legends, promoters and a media contingent from Europe, the US and across Australia?

It didn’t go unnoticed with Jeff Horn. He, like everyone else, had arrived for an 11am start to promote Sunday’s super fight and build on the already impressive tally of 46,000 seats sold.

Horn couldn’t believe Pacquiao was on his mobile. He might have laughed but didn’t find it funny.

This fight has had no taunts or no trash talk and this is the first sign of any real disagreement or ill-feeling between the two fighters.

“I’ve grown up thinking that’s not the thing to do [be on the phone] especially in front of this many people,” Horn said. “I can’t imagine him doing that at a Mayweather press conference. I didn’t know what he was doing.

“It definitely shows a bit of a ‘I don’t care’ attitude towards the fight.

“Maybe we’ll see that he hasn’t put in all the hard work.

“I don’t know if it’s arrogance, but I can just promise him it’s not going to be an easy fight.”

Even co-promoter Dean Lonergan chipped Pacquiao.

“He’s a world champion texter,” Lonergan told the audience. “I hope he takes his phone into the ring with him.”

Afterwards Pacquiao denied he was sending text messages or being disrespectful.

“I was actually making my speech to thank the people,” he said. “I wasn’t texting anyone. I was just making my message but I didn’t get to say it.”

Pacquiao’s legendary trainer Freddie Roach confirmed this was the case.

“Manny’s Manny — he’s not a rude person,” he said

“He was writing his speech and making sure he had all the names and the pronunciations right.”

It did show that Manny’s fingers are a lot slower than his fists. Who else would take 15 minutes to write down half a dozen names?

Punctuality and phone issues aside, Roach is convinced his 11-time world champion will be far too strong for Brisbane’s 29-year-old schoolteacher.

“I think it’s going to be short and sweet,” Roach said.

“It’s not going to last long. We’re very well prepared.”