“When I was growing up I used to admire Oscar de la Hoya, he was my hero,” Pacquiao explained.

“I also used to like Roy Jones Jnr and Julio Cesar Chavez but Oscar was my number one.

“I was very honoured to actually fight him, that was a real high point for me because of the amount of respect I had for him.”

Although Hatton had built a reputation as a hurtful puncher, Pacquiao said the now-retired “Golden Boy” possessed the edge in power.

“Hatton was strong but he wasn’t like de la Hoya because Oscar was very heavy-handed,” he said.

“Anyway, at this level when anyone hits you it hurts!”

His easy-going demeanour can make you forget that he is one of the most dangerous unarmed men on the planet. Pacquiao doesn’t talk big but his record speaks for itself.

The Asian superstar believes a big part of his continuing success is down to the input of trainer Freddie Roach at the Wild Card gym in Los Angeles.

“Freddie has helped me a lot,” he explained.

“He has shown me a lot of new things and helped me to develop. He is a great trainer and I think he is the best in the world.”

“Floyd, quit running. Stop running. Stop saying that, oh, you know, I’m not a pay-per-view attraction, or this or that,” Mosley said in a recent television interview. “I’ve been fighting longer than you. I’ve been making money longer than you. That’s probably why you’re coming back to the sport right now is because you need money, you lost your money, now you had to come back and get some more money.

“We can make money together, alright? So let’s do it,” he added.

Mayweather has said he will fight all top opponents during his return.

A lot of names have surfaced, itching to have a date with Pacquiao inside the squared circle. Probably the matchups that are likely to happen are bouts with welterweight champions Miguel Cotto and Shane Mosley. Pacquiao´s trainer Freddie Roach has already expressed their camp´s desire to fight either guy at a catch weight between 143 and 144.

There are other boxers who want a shot at Pacquiao but as for the time being, these two are the ones that make sense. The reason is that both fighters hold welterweight belts and a win over either one of them will give Pacquiao his sixth (or seventh) division championship, tying or possibly surpassing Oscar Dela Hoya´s record of six division championships. For Cotto and Mosley, a win against Pacquiao will raise their status to higher heights.

Popular Filipino boxer Manny Pacquiao wants to fight Floyd Mayweather, Jr. if he wins over Juan Manuel Marquez in their fight scheduled for July 18th at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, Nevada.
Pound-for-pound king Manny Pacquiao thinks that Floyd Mayweather, Jr. will emerge as winner over Juan Manuel Marquez in their July 18th fight at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, Nevada.

Mayweather has a lot of advantages. He is faster than Marquez and should be able to win, he said.

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.

Muhammad Ali used to ask a rhetorical question about daring to be great. And what he meant was a boxer has to put everything at risk – his health, his title, and the chance to make the big money. In exchange, by taking on the best competition around, that fighter gains respect. When Ali came out of his three year exile, in his third fight he fought Joe Frazier, taking an enormous beating, almost being knocked out in the eleventh and fifteenth rounds, and losing a decision. But he was finally appreciated as a great fighter because even though he lost, he was game throughout the fight – soon after, Budd Schulberg entitled an Ali biography “Loser and Still Champion.” Ali arguably gained more from that loss than from any win.

And that’s how the pound-for- pound works. Everybody on that list, to a greater or lesser extent has dared to be great and has achieved or approached it – win or lose. That is something the heavyweights should keep in mind. But these days heavyweight champions and contenders both are manufactured by fighting retired ex-contenders and ex-champions and by the wishful thinking of a boxing media anxious for the next great American heavyweight.

By Adam Smith
Mexico is a most proud nation. The people are patriotic, the families are huge and tight-knit; their boxers seemingly born to fight.
The list of Mexican greats reads like a who’s who in the history of the sport: Salvador Sanchez, Vicente Saldivar, Miguel Canto, Ruben Olivares, Carlos Zarate, …