Philippine boxing icon Manny Pacquiao is still "hungry" to fight, despite a dalliance with professional basketball that had his camp worried sick.
The 35-year-old, who has world titles in eight weight divisions under his belt, made a lacklustre pro ball debut on Sunday, a month before his World Boxing Organisation title defence against undefeated American Chris Algieri in Macau.
"I'm still hungry and I'm doing what I did before," the Filipino said on Thursday in a teleconference call with the press from his training camp in the southern Philippine city of General Santos.
"What we're doing right now is to get back the hungriness and the focus and the killer instinct that the people want."
Pacquiao said basketball, the number one sport in the Philippines, was his other love -- but that he is fully focused on boxing.
"Basketball is also good to have, you know, footwork and balancing. It helps a lot," he said, describing it as his "cross-training" activity.
His US promoter Bob Arum said he had got wind of Pacquiao's plans to play in the professional Philippine Basketball Association beforehand and admitted: "I wasn't very happy."
"Professional basketball, no matter where the country it is that you play it, is a rugged sport and a player can turn an ankle very, very easily," said Arum.
"NBA (US National Basketball Association) players are fantastic physical specimens and yet they get injured all the time," he added.
"An injury would have really wreaked havoc with the fight, so I was not very pleased."
But Arum said Pacquiao assured him he will play no more pro ball until after the Macau bout on November 23.
Pacquiao went scoreless in his pro ball debut on Sunday and turned the ball over twice in nearly seven minutes of action as the starting off-guard and playing coach of the Kia team.
The dismal numbers had fans doubting the 1.69-metre rookie's ability to play at that level.
Share
