PACQUIAO LEARNS TO MULTI-TASK.

Byline: ROBERT MORALES

Boxing

Any athlete needs to be focused on the task at hand, but a fighter perhaps more so than any other because of the obvious danger and because one punch can turn around a fight and send a superior fighter to defeat.

Manny Pacquiao said one of the reasons he lost a decision to Erik Morales in their first fight in March 2005 was the distraction caused by a beef with his promoter at the time, Murad Muhammad. That, and a cut Pacquiao suffered during the fight were, in his mind, why he lost.

Pacquiao has more on his plate at the moment than he had then as he heads into his super featherweight fight tonight against Mexico's Jorge Solis in San Antonio, Texas.

Pacquiao's new promoter, Bob Arum of Top Rank Inc., is embroiled in a legal battle with Oscar De La Hoya's Golden Boy Promotions over the rights to Pacquiao. Both companies signed Pacquiao to contracts last year and Pacquiao has chosen to honor the contract with Arum.

Furthermore, Golden Boy tried to get an injunction to stop Pacquiao's fight with Solis.

But Golden Boy was shot down in state and federal court, meaning the pay-per-view event will go on as scheduled.

With all that, Pacquiao is without trainer Freddie Roach, who is in Puerto Rico training DeLa Hoya for his May 5 mega fight against Floyd Mayweather Jr. Topping it off, Pacquiao is running for Congress in his native Philippines.

Other than that, Pacquiao has no distractions at all.

"My focus right now is to train hard and to get in shape and to concentrate on the fight," Pacquiao said. "That's all. I never let distractions get in the way of my training. Never.

"I can do many things (at) one time."

It seems Pacquiao forgot about the excuses he made after his loss to Morales, which he has since twice avenged in knockout fashion. But at the end of the day, he's probably right. We don't believe for one second that he lost to Morales because he was distracted. He lost to Morales because Morales was the better man that night.

But fighters take losing very personally because of the one-on-one nature of the sport, so they are the first ones to make excuses when they lose.

Besides, in Arum, Pacquiao has just the promoter who can keep much of what is going on away from him. Arum has been around a long time in this game.

"None of this (litigation) has affected Manny because we've kept Manny out of it," Arum said. "And, indeed, very little of it has affected me because I've been out of it. That is something that's handled primarily by our lawyers. Our lawyers are the best in the country. They have done a fabulous job and the results demonstrate that."

While Arum has separated Pacquiao from the legal fight with Golden Boy, Pacquiao said he has been able to steer clear of his political campaign while preparing for Solis.

"When I get here in America and I start training I just, you know, just train," he said. "I am very focused on training for my coming fight. I have a lot of people in the Philippines working my campaign and know how to campaign for Manny Pacquiao while I'm away."

As for the trainer issue, Pacquiao would appear to be in good hands with Justin Fortune, who is Roach's second in command at his Wild Card Gym in Hollywood.

"Manny realizes the importance of this fight," Fortune said. "He knows everyone is out to beat Manny Pacquiao. He's taking it very, very seriously."

Pacquiao, 28, is 43-3-2 with 34knockouts. Solis, 27, is 30-0-2 with 23 knockouts.

Pac-man Fever hits Filipino politics

Manny Pacquiao is running for Congress in his native Philippines for two reasons -- to make a better life for the people of the first district of South Cotabato, and to show that there is such thing as a Filipino politician who makes promises and keeps them.

"There are a lot of people who are poor and they need my help, and because there are some politicians in my place that, they are always promising, promising and they don't do anything," Pacquiao said. "So, there are a lot of people -- poor people -- that need help."

The first district of South Cotabato includes General Santos City, Pacquiao's hometown.

Bob Arum, Pacquiao's promoter, said that Pacquiao running for office against Darlene Custodio has become an incredible story in the Philippines. He said that there are television reporters covering his fight tonight in San Antonio against Jorge Solis, and that they have been just as interested in Pacquiao's political career.

"We have Filipino television crews here and every hour they are doing a program and sending it back to the Philippines," Arum said. "They have been interviewing me and I didn't realize at first that everything I say has been going back to the Philippines.

"Now they view me as a political celebrity. And they ask me as much about Manny's views as they do his boxing."

There were reports out of the Philippines that Custodio was trying to get tonight's telecast back to the Philippines blocked because she was concerned Pacquiao would gain an advantage over her if all of the respective voters were cheering him on during his fight.

Custodio has denied that, and the telecast will be shown.

Meanwhile, Pacquiao has asked Arum to go with him to the Philippines prior to the May14 election for moral support.

"Manny told me he would consider it a great favor if I would go over to the Philippines the final week of the campaign,"

Arum said. "And it sort of stunned me. But, listen, if it will help him, I'm happy to do it."

Arum, a graduate of Harvard Law School, served as a top lawyer at the Justice Department under Attorney General Robert Kennedy during John F. Kennedy's presidency.

CAPTION(S):

2 photos, box

Photo:

(1) WBC International Super Featherweight boxers Jorge Solis, left, and Manny Pacquiao pose for photos after their weigh-in Friday.

Paul J. Richards/AFP/Getty Images

(2) PACQUIAO

Box:

Etc.