Manny Pacquiao Hits L.A. for US Press Tour, Mobbed By Fans at Airport

Filipino boxing icon Manny Pacquiao arrived in Los Angeles Monday night for a series of promotional tours that will bring him to New York and Texas after a kickoff press conference in Beverly Hills, California on Tuesday.

Pacquiao was mobbed by boxing fans who wanted to have their autographs signed by the pound-for-pound king inside the Los Angeles International Airport.

Pacquiao's arrival created a mild commotion inside the airport as photographers and press people took turns taking photos of the neophyte congressman from the Philippines.

Pacquiao willingly obliged requests for photographs and autographs, but his escorts and security aides whisked him out to a waiting convoy.

Pacquiao remains popular not only to boxing fans but to other people who followed his phenomenal and meteoric rise to stardom.

Pacquiao is facing Antonio Margarito of Mexico in a junior middleweight fight on November 13 at the Dallas Cowboys Stadium in Arlington, Texas.

From Los Angeles, Pacquiao will proceed to New York on Wednesday and then to Arlington, Texas on Friday for continuation of the press tour and a meeting with Jerry Jones, owner of Cowboys Stadium.

Dennis Guillermo wrote in his Examiner news release, "Whether you like his matchup against Antonio Margarito or not, if you are a real boxing fan, there's no way you are missing Manny Pacquiao's next fight.

"Whether you love him or hate him, or simply dislike the loyal and rabid fan base that rolls with him, you can't deny the fact that The Pac Man is THE MAN in boxing until someone knocks him off or he retires.

"Just check the news, the Internet, and everywhere else they report boxing...it is a matter of fact, all about Pacquiao. Even the whole witch hunt for Floyd Mayweather Jr.'s whereabouts is about how he has avoided Pacquiao."

Pacquiao is returning to Manila right after the press tour to attend to his work as congressman representing his district in the southern Philippines.

The popular boxer will start training on September 20 in the Philippines where he will be joined by his trainer, Freddie Roach, and his main sparring partner, Julio Cesar Chavez.