LOS ANGELES — Manny Pacquiao believes the biggest potential fight in boxing will never happen because Floyd Mayweather Jr. wants no part of him.
Pacquiao is training in Hollywood for his meeting with Miguel Cotto on Nov. 14 in Las Vegas, but the pound-for-pound champion spared a moment on Thursday to evaluate his chances of fighting Mayweather, the unbeaten pay-per-view king. Although the matchup almost certainly would be a financial bonanza for both fighters, Pacquiao thinks fans shouldn’t hold their breath.
“I don’t think it’s going to happen,” Pacquiao said. “I’m sure he doesn’t want to fight.”
Mayweather has been circumspect about his plans for his next bout, saying only that he has never ducked anybody and would consider any opponent. In his comeback bout from a 21-month layoff, Mayweather demolished Juan Manuel Marquez on Sept. 19 in a fight that generated more than 1 million pay-per-view buys.
Mayweather’s advisers claim they haven’t ruled out a bout with Pacquiao, likely among the world’s few fighters who could match the American’s speed. But the Filipino champion has surprisingly strong opinions about why it won’t happen.
“Boxing for him is like a business,” Pacquiao said. “He doesn’t care about the people around him watching. He doesn’t care if the fight is boring, as long as the fight is finished and he gets (plenty of) money. … I want people to be happy. You have a big responsibility as a boxer.”
You don’t need to hear Rob Peters bellowing out,” IT’S PACQUIAO TIME!!!’, in mid-day at the Wild Card Boxing Club to figure out that Manny Pacquiao has made his way back to his familiar haunts in Hollywood to finish out his final preparations for his November 14Th date against Miguel Cotto. Hours before he steps through those doors, you see the congested gym in the morning hours replete with various fighters( who hope to get their days work in before the facility is shut down for ’the Pac Man’) and the usual array of on-lookers and stragglers who stick around hoping to catch a glimpse of the Filipino icon.
When Pacquiao arrives in Los Angeles for his fights, parking spots at the Wild Card becomes harder to find than on the streets of New York, clients of the gym line up for occupied heavy bags as if they were waiting for their ham-on-rye at a famous deli( the only thing missing it seems, is that they don’t issue you tickets with a number on it), photographers roam the premises as if they were the paparazzi and you have HBO’s ever-expanding crew and their high priced equipment setting up to cover every step that Pacquiao takes inside the gym. Then there are the various stars, celebrities and VIP’s that drop by to see boxing’s biggest international superstar.
fightnews.com
Manny Pacquiao’s flight will arrive tonight (Saturday) one hour earlier than expected. Philippine Airlines Flight 102 will arrive at 6:55 pm at Los Angeles International Airport. Fight fans are invited to come and welcome Pacman at LAX Terminal 4 upon his arrival for his Novemver 14 showdown with Miguel Cotto in Las Vegas.
Pacquiao selected Baguio — six hours north of Manila by car — as the site of his training camp because he could do road work in the mountains. But the rains made it nearly impossible to run, so instead, HBO has nice shots of him swimming in an indoor pool while it’s storming outside.
Also, according to reports from the Philippines, Pac Man’s entourage has grown, which always makes things entertaining.
Joining us for lunch was HBO’s Ray Stallone, who said that the ratings for 24/7 continue to rise. “Anytime [Floyd] Mayweather is involved, we see a spike in ratings,” said Stallone. “And it’s going up in the 18 to 35 demographic. That’s so heartening. These are our new fans.”
There are a certain generation of people who are forever hooked on boxing because they watched the “Friday Night Fights,” with their dad in the 1950s. Perhaps 24/7 has the same impact. Greenburg hears from all kinds of individuals who watch the series, including a lot of celebrities. One of them, NASCAR champ Jimmie Johnson, will soon have his own 24/7 experience.
Before he stepped into the ring against Antonio Margarito in July 2008, Puerto Rican Miguel Cotto was undefeated and considered one of the best pound-for-pound fighters in the world.
The then-WBA welterweight champion — who will fight current pound-for-pound king Manny Pacquiao on Nov. 14 in Las Vegas — was a powerful and punishing body-puncher, and his handlers were eying a future mega-fight against undefeated Floyd Mayweather Jr., if they could coax him out of retirement.
But Cotto fans were stunned as Margarito administered an 11-round beating before Cotto’s corner threw in the towel after Cotto, bloodied and battered, twice took a knee in an attempt to slow the Mexican’s onslaught.
Though he has yet to make up his mind about fighting again or not, it is clear the 10th-round stoppage loss he suffered at the hands of Floyd Mayweather Junior still plays on the mind of Ricky Hatton; far more than the even more devastating and much quicker KO loss he suffered at the hands of Manny Pacquiao in his last fight.
Hatton has yet to make a decision as to whether or not the brutal 2nd-round KO will end his fine and exciting pro career, but he has made it clear that if he were to come back, Floyd Mayweather would be his prime target.
In a new interview with BBC radio, Hatton, now a successful promoter, said he’d need some big motivation to want to return to the ring, and that “Money” is one fighter who would give him that motivation.
When the fight was announced the two combatants were coming off markedly different performances. One frighteningly dominant, the other a test of wills that came down to a scant few points on the judges scorecards. One fighter seemed to be leap-frogging the perilous climb to pound-for-pound supremacy while the other seemed to be finding slippery wet patches as he struggled onward and upward. That their ring accomplishments are in fact comparable became a moot point – one was spectacularly exciting, the other as stoic and measured in his ring approach as his manner.
Manny Pacquiao and Miguel Cotto, who will meet in the years biggest and most significant bout on November 14th, have so much more in common than their respective fans and critics would contend. And the level of experience and professionalism both men bring to the ring all but guarantees a fistic display of the highest quality.
Boxing trainer and coach Freddie Roach spoke highly of Manny Pacquiao’s sparring partners that include Jose Luis Castillo, the former lightweight champion of the world as Team Pacquiao leaves Saturday to continue training at the Wild Card Gym in L.A.
Pacquiao’s trainer and coach Freddie Roach is happy with Pacquiao’s sparring partners and speaks highly of them as Team Pacquiao prepares to leave for Los Angeles, California for the last leg of the Filipino boxer’s training and physical conditioning.
Among Pacquiao’s sparing partners who gets special attention from Roach because of the inputs that he gives to the Filipino boxer’s quest for being the first boxer to win seven titles in seven weight divisions, is Jose Luis Castillo of Mexico, himself a former light weight champion of the world who also spoke highly of Manny Pacquiao.
Castillo is convinced that nobody in the weight range where Pacquiao and Cotto are fighting is capable of beating Pacquiao based on his experience on the first few sparring sessions with the pound for pound king.
Usually in boxing, common sense comes to the fore in the end, when all parties concerned realise that the fight has to happen due to the sheer size of the event and of the money to be made from it. Let’s hope this turns out to be the case with Pacquiao-Mayweather just as it was with Hatton-Pacquiao - another fight that looked to be off for a while due to disagreements over the monetary share the two fighters were to be paid. In the end, both sides came to their senses, but in an interview today with The Philippine Star, Arum made it clear Mayweather and his team will have to make a big concession if the fight we all want to see is actually made.
“You can tell Floyd Mayweather that Bob Arum says he’s delusional,” Arum said. “Floyd is not the attraction. Manny is the attraction. Floyd’s got no idea what he’s talking about. Floyd must be hallucinating when he said he wants the bigger purse and wouldn’t agree to a 50/50 split. Even a 50/50 split with Floyd Mayweather is nonsense.”
“I feel that Manny Pacquiao’s big enough and should be strong enough for me and him to have a good fight,” said the 37-year-old, 5-foot-9 Mosley, a former world junior middleweight champion.
“Pacquiao was the only one that said yes, he would actually fight me, and I commend him for that. That’s how tough fighters should do.”
Mosley said he won’t be like the now-retired De La Hoya, who dodged criticisms about a supposed mismatch on his favor prior to his fight with Pacquiao in December last year in Las Vegas.
“The pound-for-pound guy is Pacquiao, so that’s my number one choice,” said Mosley. “I think about the future and accomplish my goal. My goal is to be the pound-for-pound No.1 fighter.”
If Shane Mosley is too tough, then how can this fight, especially considering the weight differential, be billed as anything other than a safe comeback bout? It isn’t as if Marquez is a young man moving up from weight class to weight class. Nor can the fact be ignored that in recent years, Marquez, once thought to be a defensive specialist, has been getting hit more and more and getting into war after war. Against Juan Diaz, Marquez looked to be getting blown out early before rallying in the middle rounds and knocking the younger Diaz out. It was a spectacular fight but one that showed vulnerability in Marquez. Perhaps that above all, is the reason this fight is happening. After all, beating the rival of Manny Pacquiao, who hasn’t shown vulnerability as he has moved up to the welterweight division, is a perfect way of setting up what would truly be a super fight between the current consensus number one pound for pound fighter and Mayweather.
Whatever the case, the fight is on and with it the hype train has left the station. A multi-city, international tour is already underway, tickets have gone on sale and will most likely sell out in hours, and HBO’s reality show 24/7 will be back on in full tilt to follow the fighters up to the first bell.
By Robert Cassidy
The Emmy Award-winning reality series “24/7″ returns for the Manny Pacquiao-Ricky Hatton junior welterweight title fight, HBO announced today.
There will be four episodes, with the first one airing Saturday April 11 at 9:30 p.m. The series will follow Pacquiao and Hatton as they prepare for their May 2 …
By Niall Hickman
MANNY Pacquiao wants to remain Ricky Hatton’s friend for life but first he wants to get down to business – and that means ending the Hitman’s career in the ring.Friendship only goes so far and, for Pacquiao, their mutual admiration will end when they step on to the …
By John Benz
My heart pumps for smack talk. Makes my blood flow and my Brain’s electrons go into overdrive. Smack talk can give any fight the transfusion it needs. The sport needs smack talk, as it helps transplant any fight into a more exciting one. Any fight can use …
by MICHAEL DAVID SMITH
As Ricky Hatton prepares to defend his world junior welterweight title against Manny Pacquiao on May 2, most boxing experts think Hatton won’t be able to withstand Pacquiao’s punching power for 12 rounds.
But Hatton has other ideas. He says Pacquiao takes too many risks with his aggressive, …
by SC
If anyone was waiting for Manny Pacquiao to say something regarding Juan Manuel Marquez’s constant badgering about a trilogy between the rivals, he has.
Pacquiao may have a May 2 megafight with Ricky Hatton coming up, and he says he didn’t watch Marquez’s epic win over Juan Diaz last …
By Doug Fischer
After a well-deserved vacation, the Fighter of the Year for 2008 returned to work on Wednesday.
Manny Pacquiao, coming off a banner year, reported to the Wild Card Boxing Club in Hollywood, Calif., for the first day of training camp for his first fight of 2009 – a May …
skysports.com
Manny Pacquiao has been warned that Ricky Hatton will “bust him up” when the pair clash on May 2 at the MGM Grand.
The light-welterweight showdown in Las Vegas will see both fighters vying for the title of the world’s best pound-for-pound fighter. read more
fighthype.com
During a blistering two-day U.K. media tour, superstars Manny “Pacman” Pacquiao and Ricky “Hitman” Hatton set the tone for their world junior welterweight “The Battle of East and West” championship set for Saturday, May 2 at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas and broadcast live on HBO Pay-Per-View. The fighters …
by Ciaran Baynes
Ricky Hatton told setanta.com that his superior size and newly-improved tactical nous will help him beat Manny Pacquiao.
The two boxing mega-stars meet in Las Vegas on May 2 and were speaking at London’s Imperial War Museum to promote their bout.
Although fully respectful of Pacquiao, Hatton believes he can …
GMANews.TV
MANILA, Philippines – Manny Pacquiao hardly felt like a visitor from a faraway land when he came face-to-face with his next foe, Ricky Hatton during their promotional tour in the latter’s hometown.
This as around 5,000 Filipinos living all around the UK flocked to the Trafford Square on the outskirts of …
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