"Manny said he will make a statement on January 1," said his trainer Freddie Roach yesterday as he joined Pacquiao for lunch in a Quezon City restaurant.

Pacquiao’s concern these days is to make sure that he can pull off a knockout performance when he headlines a concert this afternoon at the Folk Arts Theater.

Pacquiao is teaming up with the Filipino-American lead singer of The Black Eyed Peas in the concert which will showcase his other talent.

Roach as well as key members of the boxer’s Philippine and Los Angeles-based entourage are expected to be in the cheering section when he jams with Apl de Ap starting at 5 p.m.

After hosting a grand party in his newly-built R35-million home in General Santos City over the weekend, Pacquiao flew back to Manila to rehearse several numbers.

Roach was supposed to head back to Los Angeles last Monday, but the bespectacled former fighter spent two days in Cebu and would only take the return flight to the US via Philippine Airlines tomorrow night.

"I can’t miss Christmas there (in the States)," said Roach.

The past few weeks, Pacquiao has been besieged with questions concerning the status of his next fight but the 28-year-old southpaw has politely declined to answer these as anything he says could affect the on-going legal battle between Golden Boy Promotions (GBP) and Top Rank of Bob Arum.

GBP wants Pacquiao to engage Marco Antonio Barrera in a rematch, while Top Rank plans to bring Pacquiao to Macau to fight undefeated Edwin Valero whose 20 victories are all by knockout.