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Pacquiao wants Mayweather, nobody else
By Ronnie Nathanielsz
MANNY Pacquiao, christened by the top leaders of Thailand as a hero of Asia, wants nobody else but Floyd Mayweather Jr. for what may well be his farewell bout.
The Filipino boxing icon told Standard Today last May 27 during a chance meeting at the Mabuhay Lounge of Philippine Airlines: “After Mayweather, I’ve done my job.”
Pacquiao predicted that Mayweather Jr. would defeat Juan Manuel Marquez in their July 18 showdown.
“Mayweather will win, the weight is too much,” said Pacquiao, referring to the fact that Marquez would be moving up from 135 to 147. “Mayweather will also be too fast for Marquez. It will be a boring fight because Marquez is a counter-puncher and Mayweather will run.”
The word is that should Mayweather Jr. and Team Pacquiao come to terms, the original Oct. 17 date for a Pacquiao fight may be pushed back by a couple of weeks to accommodate the winner, provided the former no. 1 pound-for-pound boxer beats Marquez and doesn’t suffer any cuts or other injuries during the July bout.
In an overseas telephone conversation with www.insidesports.ph, Standard Today and Viva Sports, trainer Freddie Roach said: “I agree with Manny about wanting to fight Mayweather Jr., that’s the easiest fight out there. Among the top guys, that’s the easiest fight.”
Roach’s views reinforced what Top Rank promoter Bob Arum told Standard Today weeks ago that instead of fighting Miguel Cotto or anybody else, Pacquiao may want to wait until after the Mayweather-Marquez bout and fight the winner.
But Arum is disappointed that Pacquiao decided to skip the awards dinner of the Boxing Writers Association of America on June 12 in New York, where he was to receive the Fighter of the Year award for the second time and Roach, the Trainer of the Year for the third time. Pacquiao is skipping the Cotto-Joshua Clottey World Boxing Organization welterweight title fight as well a day later at Madison Square Garden.
“He better go, he better go. Let me tell you the media will never let him live it down. In the whole history of the awards, there has never been a fighter that hasn’t shown up. He can still go. He can come on Thursday and be in New York on Thursday night and there’s plenty of time,” Arum said.
He added Pacquiao must understand that the American media “has been very good to him. Absolutely.”
Pacquiao’s adviser Michael Koncz, after a conversation with Arum, said he was going to see Pacquiao at his home in Brentville and to try and convince him to go to New York and also put Arum on the phone so he could talk to Pacquiao.
But Koncz said that for almost one year, he told Pacquiao he needed to spend some time with his family. “How can you now argue against it if he wants to spend time with wife Jinkee and his kids?”
Koncz said Pacquiao, Jinkee, his two sons and eldest daughter were scheduled to fly to Bohol at 6:30 p.m. yesterday for a quiet vacation, as if that is at all possible for the most popular personality in the country.
By Ronnie Nathanielsz
MANNY Pacquiao, christened by the top leaders of Thailand as a hero of Asia, wants nobody else but Floyd Mayweather Jr. for what may well be his farewell bout.
The Filipino boxing icon told Standard Today last May 27 during a chance meeting at the Mabuhay Lounge of Philippine Airlines: “After Mayweather, I’ve done my job.”
Pacquiao predicted that Mayweather Jr. would defeat Juan Manuel Marquez in their July 18 showdown.
“Mayweather will win, the weight is too much,” said Pacquiao, referring to the fact that Marquez would be moving up from 135 to 147. “Mayweather will also be too fast for Marquez. It will be a boring fight because Marquez is a counter-puncher and Mayweather will run.”
The word is that should Mayweather Jr. and Team Pacquiao come to terms, the original Oct. 17 date for a Pacquiao fight may be pushed back by a couple of weeks to accommodate the winner, provided the former no. 1 pound-for-pound boxer beats Marquez and doesn’t suffer any cuts or other injuries during the July bout.
In an overseas telephone conversation with www.insidesports.ph, Standard Today and Viva Sports, trainer Freddie Roach said: “I agree with Manny about wanting to fight Mayweather Jr., that’s the easiest fight out there. Among the top guys, that’s the easiest fight.”
Roach’s views reinforced what Top Rank promoter Bob Arum told Standard Today weeks ago that instead of fighting Miguel Cotto or anybody else, Pacquiao may want to wait until after the Mayweather-Marquez bout and fight the winner.
But Arum is disappointed that Pacquiao decided to skip the awards dinner of the Boxing Writers Association of America on June 12 in New York, where he was to receive the Fighter of the Year award for the second time and Roach, the Trainer of the Year for the third time. Pacquiao is skipping the Cotto-Joshua Clottey World Boxing Organization welterweight title fight as well a day later at Madison Square Garden.
“He better go, he better go. Let me tell you the media will never let him live it down. In the whole history of the awards, there has never been a fighter that hasn’t shown up. He can still go. He can come on Thursday and be in New York on Thursday night and there’s plenty of time,” Arum said.
He added Pacquiao must understand that the American media “has been very good to him. Absolutely.”
Pacquiao’s adviser Michael Koncz, after a conversation with Arum, said he was going to see Pacquiao at his home in Brentville and to try and convince him to go to New York and also put Arum on the phone so he could talk to Pacquiao.
But Koncz said that for almost one year, he told Pacquiao he needed to spend some time with his family. “How can you now argue against it if he wants to spend time with wife Jinkee and his kids?”
Koncz said Pacquiao, Jinkee, his two sons and eldest daughter were scheduled to fly to Bohol at 6:30 p.m. yesterday for a quiet vacation, as if that is at all possible for the most popular personality in the country.
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