By Ronnie Nathanielsz
After a whirlwind trip to Bangkok and hosting his one day 5-cock derby on Tuesday at the Araneta Coliseum, Filipino boxing hero Manny Pacquiao will leave for Australia with wife Jinkee and their children on a one-week family vacation.
Pacquiao’s adviser Michael Koncz who didn’t join him on the trip to Bangkok but stayed behind to attend to getting the necessary visas and booking the airline tickets and hotel accommodation in Sydney said “Manny wants a quiet family vacation” and doesn’t want to attend welcome affairs and other activities that would deny him time with his family.
One of those who wishes to host Pacquiao and his family at a private dinner is well-known Australian promoter and TV boxing show host Peter Maniatis who interviewed Pacquiao a couple of years ago in the US when Pacquiao said he would like to visit Australia.
He is expected to fly to the US following his return from Australia provided the so-called swine flu scare tapers off.
Top Rank promoter Bob Arum told us last week that Pacquiao would receive the “Fighter of the Year” Award from the Boxing Writers Association of America for the second time on June 12 and watch the title fight between Miguel Cotto and Ghana ’s Joshua Clottey at Madison Square Garden the following day.
Cotto is one of the fighters being mentioned as a possible opponent for the world’s No.1 pound-for-pound fighter on October 17 in Las Vegas although both Cotto and champion Sugar Shane Mosley have said they would not come down in weight to fight Pacquiao.
Key advisers in the Pacquiao camp have indicated they would prefer that Pacquiao waits for the results of the July 18 showdown between Floyd Mayweather Jr and Juan Manuel Marquez and fight the winner which most analysts claim should be the bigger Mayweather Jr.
BoxingScene.com, insidesports.ph, Standard Today and Viva Sports learned that Pacquiao would rather wait for the results of the Mayweather-Marquez fight before making a decision on a planned October 17 bout. We also learned that Pacquiao was "not interested" in fighting WBO welterweight champ Miguel Cotto, and he didn't want to fight in New York's Madison Square Garden, preferring Las Vegas as a venue.
