Filipino star Pacquiao steps up training for Margarito

Manny Pacquiao says preparations for his upcoming title fight against Antonio Margarito are going smoothly after getting off to a rocky start in the Philippines.

“Training is going good,” said Pacquiao, who arrived in Los Angeles last weekend from the Philippines.

“This training has come with some problems and distractions. But we know what our mistakes were. I had a good jog this morning.”

The 31-year-old seven-division world champion also said he has no immediate plans to retire after this fight in order to spend more time on his Congressional duties in the Philippines.

Pacquiao, who was elected to the Philippine Congress in May, is on leave from his duties at the House of Representatives so he can defend his world super welterweight title against Mexico’s Antonio Margarito on November 13 in Dallas, Texas.

Asked in between sparring sessions, how many more times he plans to fight, Pacquiao replied “a few more.” There had been speculation in some circles that without a worthy opponent, Pacquiao might pack it in for good after he fights Margarito.

“I am thinking about retirement but I can still fight a few fights and that is it,” said Pacquiao at the Wild Card Boxing Club in Hollywood.

Pacquiao won a seat in Congress taking the lone position in the province of Sarangani in a landslide victory five months ago.

When he steps into the ring with Mexico’s Margarito he will become the first elected official to fight for a world championship.

“We don’t have Congress now because it is on vacation till November so it is good,” Pacquiao said.

One of his first acts in Congress was to get the government to grant citizenship to his long-time trainer Freddie Roach, who has his own fan following in the Philippines.

“We passed a bill adopting him as a Filipino citizen,” Pacquiao said.

Roach said he is expecting to get his new passport soon but doesn’t plan to give up his US citizenship.

This week, he said that training in the Philippines didn’t go so well because there were too many distractions. But since arriving in Los Angeles, Roach says Pacquiao has been focusing solely on getting ready for the fight.

“He wants to prove to people he can do more than one thing at a time,” Roach said.

The fight will mark the second world championship event at the new state-of-the art Cowboys ­Stadium. Over 50,000 people watched Pacquiao successfully defend his WBO welterweight title against Joshua Clottey on March 13.