Pacquiao told them that Thai boxers are as talented as their Filipino counterparts and said he planned to recruit Thai boxers to join his MP Promotions which currently handles some talented Filipino fighters who get the breaks in the US because of Pacquiao.
Thai reporters teased Pacquiao by requesting him to sing while he had a hearty laugh when asked whether he could lend the Thai government some money to tide over its budgetary problems.
Pacquiao reportedly made a lasting impression on the Thai media who said he was “cheerful and smiling throughout” the press conference.
In an airport conversation with us, Pacquiao said he was grateful to the Thai Prime Minister and the other officials in Thailand as well as the media "for a great reception."
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.
The good news is Pacquiao’s next fight is currently pencilled in for October 17th, most likely in Las Vegas. And hopefully this time, as much as we enjoy seeing spectacular knockouts, the action will last a little longer!
Reading the various chatter on the net, there are four or five names being spoken of as possibilities for Pacquiao’s October foe. There’s the winner of the July 18th clash between the returning Floyd Mayweather and Juan Manuel Marquez, there’s “Sugar” Shane Mosley, there’s Julio Cesar Chavez Junior, and, as an outside chance, seeing as how Pacquiao has said he has no real interest in facing him, there is Miguel Cotto. Either fight, begging the pardon of Chavez Junior, would be as good as can be expected in the quality match-up stakes.
Of course, there is the possibility Pacquiao will opt to take on another fighter entirely, but there’s a reasonable chance the 30-year-old, now all-time great, will face one of the names listed above. We all know who we WANT it to be - the Mayweather-Marquez winner. But that doesn’t mean it will happen. Not yet, anyway. if “Money” does as expected and wins on July 18th, he and Pacquiao will surely meet down the road, but it may not be until next year some time.
Few cases in point: Michael Spinks spiraled from being a World Champion all the way down to baby-sitting his brother during weekend visitations in just one fight with Tyson. Who can forget Ken North eating a series of Gerry Cooney head-shots while relaxing on the bottom rope before becoming relegated to spectator status? Although Joe Frazier did fight once more (to a draw) after Big George Foreman nearly decapitated him in the 5th round of their Kingston, Jamaica match for the WBC and WBA titles, he should’ve remained at home after the hammering. The list goes on ….
Bottom line is this - sometimes- not always - but sometimes when hard-hitting bangers get put in their tracks with a single shot to the head, it means their time is up. Something usually weakens in their mannerism, their arsenal, their game. Fighters have huge egos and there is nothing more real-life than a one-punch-knockout to send a strong warrior plummeting down to earth with us mere mortals.
MANILA, Philippines – The fight remains a dream showdown for now but trainer Freddie Roach already has an idea how his ward Manny Pacquiao will approach and break down Floyd Mayweather Jr if ever they climb the ring together.
“Floyd’s shoulder roll wouldn’t work against Manny,” Roach said when he guested recently on ESPN. “If he wants to lay on the rope, we’d love that. Manny will go to his body and Floyd will be broken down.”
Clamor for a possible Pacquiao-Mayweather bout remains high as ring aficionados want to see who will prevail in a battle between two pound-for-pound top guns.
Pacquiao has been the consensus P4P king since the unbeaten Mayweather retired a year and a half ago. Early this month, Mayweather announced his return to boxing, facing Pacquiao’s old rival Juan Manuel Marquez on July 18 and claiming he’s still the No. 1 fighter in the planet and the sport’s top draw.
>"In the last five years, you would look at the results and say Marquez. He has fought better fighters, Pacquiao twice, Diaz. Who in the hell is Carlos Baldomir? Zab Judah? Past his prime Oscar and only wins by one point?
"I think Mayweather’s hand speed is faster but he only throws one punch at a time. Marquez throws punches in the proverbial bunches. I think that’s going to be an interesting factor to see if Floyd can deal with it. He can’t put himself on the ropes like he did with Hatton. He knew he could just counter him in between.
"Mayweather’s gotta come down to 144, is it easier to come up or go down? Oscar drained himself against Pacquiao, Antonio Tarver couldn’t make it coming after Rocky. It gets tough and he has no body fat so where does it come from? It comes from muscle. When you have a lot of imponderables, you have a great fight."
He knows he is looking to restore the reputation of a fighting nation that has given birth to the likes of Salvador Sanchez, Ricardo Lopez, Carlos Zarate, Julio Cesar Chavez and more recently, Erik Morales and Marco Antonio Barrera.
“It’s a great responsibility for me, because Mexican people love boxing and they will all be watching this fight,” he told skysports.com.
“They are very excited, so it’s a great opportunity for me and for all the Mexicans - around the world - supporting me. And all the people watching me.”
It is a thought that does not faze the 35-year-old three-weight world champion in the slightest.
The most avoided boxer in the world, Paul Williams, looks to have left the welterweight division for good. Unable to secure paydays at 147, Williams is not campaigning at 154 and 160. The only other currently rated top 10 welterweights in the world by Ring Magazine are Isaac Hlatsway from South Africa and Vyacheslav Senchenko from the Ukraine. Those guys maybe talented fighters, but they wouldn’t exactly be big paydays for Mosley and neither of them actually deserve a title shot at this point in their careers.
So Shane Mosley will just have to wait and see what happens. Hopefully, things will just sort themselves out soon, because one of the best welterweights in the world and arguably the top dog at 147 should not be left out in the cold in what appears to be the deepest division in the sport. Let’s hope we see Shane in a big fight again soon, because boxing is better when its best stars are in the ring.
Mosley was dismissed as a future opponent because he has “five losses” and is “not a pay-per-view attraction,” according to Mayweather.
Mayweather’s disrespect was enough to make the normally affable and reserved Mosley fire back.
“Floyd’s delusional,” Mosley said from his home in La Verne, California on Friday. “He talks about his pay-per-view numbers but everyone knows that it was Ricky (Hatton) and Oscar (De La Hoya) who brought in the fans and sold those pay-per-view buys. Before he fought De La Hoya his numbers were so disappointing HBO didn’t want him to fight on pay-per-view anymore.
“The fights with Oscar and Ricky, and the 24/7’s he did on HBO before those fights, got his name out there but I don’t think it made him more popular with boxing fans. I don’t think he’ll ever be as popular as he thinks he is until he really fights the best.”
Early in his career, when he campaigned in the 130- and 135-pound divisions, Mayweather did fight the best. He beat the likes of Genaro Hernandez, Diego Corrales, Jesus Chavez, and Jose Luis Castillo displaying once-in-a-lifetime talent and athletic gifts that were on par with Mosley’s abilities at lightweight.
Somewhere during his transition from lightweight to junior welterweight and welterweight in the middle part of the decade, Mayweather’s focus shifted from proving his potential greatness to protecting his undefeated record and making as much money as possible.
It can be argued that it worked out for him, as he made a small fortune fighting Oscar De La Hoya and Ricky Hatton in 2007, but it’s a damn shame.
Imagine the welterweight round robin that could have taken place over the last four years if Mayweather shared Mosley’s mettle.
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.
Is Edwin Valero a contender? That is definitely a yes. Beating Pitalua proved that , but the elite of the division could shatter his dreams. Him and his fans are calling out Pacquiao. This is probably a call he wants to hang up on before it goes through. One reason this fight wont happen is because Valero is not a name here in America. He has just been cleared to fight in certain states following a head injury several years ago. That means he can’t fill Manny’s wallet the way some other boxers can. The second reason is that Valero is just not ready for Pacquiao right now. Until he improves his defense Valero would be an easy target. His fans would say that he could go toe to toe with Manny , that would be an easy fight to call…Pacquiao winning by ko in 1.
As of now Edwin Valero is definitely a contender for a lightweight belt , but until he fights more of the big names he will be considered a pretender to the pound for pound throne.
In an interesting interview conducted by Sky Sports with Ricky Hatton’s assistant trainer, Lee Beard believes Mayweather Sr. will still be part of team Hatton. There has been plenty of speculation that after suffering a second round knock-out to Manny Pacquiao, that Hatton would drop his head trainer, Floyd Mayweather Sr.
Beard tells SkySports that should Hatton return to the ring, he believes Hatton will keep Mayweather Sr. as his trainer. “Yes I think he (Ricky) would bring Floyd Sr back,” Beard told skysports.com. “I don’t see why he shouldn’t do,”stated Beard.
Beard added: “I don’t think Ricky needs to return to be honest with you but there’s no reason why Floyd couldn’t be in charge as the head trainer again.”.
The Floyd Mayweather-Juan Manuel Marquez hype show rolled into London yesterday, and as usual 32-year-old “Money” Mayweather had plenty to say. Speaking primarily about two fighters, in Manny Pacquiao and Ricky Hatton - the former being a potential rival for the future, the latter being a conquered foe - Mayweather had some interesting stuff to say.
Floyd knows only too well the majority of fans worldwide want him to meet up with the man who took over his spot at the top of the pound-for-pound pile, and the 39-0(25) master said yesterday that if and when he and the Filipino superstar do meet he will beat him.
“If the Pacquiao fight presents itself after this one [Vs. Marquez], then I’ll lay the blueprint on how to beat him,” Mayweather said yesterday.. “Pacquiao’s a good fighter but he can be got. He was knocked out twice before and I’m a slick, smart boxer. I would tie him up. There’s a science to this game and I could adapt to any style. Pacquiao was out-boxed by Erik Morales.”
Pacquiao may well have been stopped twice before, but on both occasions the southpaw was still very much a work in progress and fighting in a much lower weight class. Mayweather is right when he says “Pac-Man” was out-boxed by Morales, though. Clearly that fight makes the unbeaten great believe he can do the same thing to Manny. It would be an entirely different fight though. Let’s hope we do get to see it. At least Mayweather is talking about the possibility.
It seems Juan Manuel Marquez’s chances of winning on July 18th are even slimmer. Forget all you’ve heard and read about the Mexican great’s bout against Floyd Mayweather Junior being a catch-weight affair being fought at 143 or 144 pounds. According to Ring Online, in a news piece that went up late last night, the fight in Las Vegas will actually be fought at welterweight, with the limit, of course, being 147 pounds. Talk about an even taller order for the future Hall of Famer who goes by the nickname of “Dinamita!”
According to Ring, the returning Mayweather Junior is better than a three-and-a-half to one betting favourite. For although it remains to be seen if the 39-0(25) master will be affected by his months of inactivity when he steps into the ring at The MGM Grand in less than two month’s time, the sheer size advantage “Money” will hold has swayed the bookmakers, and they think he will certainly emerge the victor.
Floyd Mayweather Jr says Ricky Hatton got beat by P4P king Manny Pacquiao because he did not stick to his game plan.
Filipino superstar Pacquiao picked off Hatton inside two rounds when the pair met recently in Las Vegas to cement his status as the current number one in boxing.
Mayweather Jr, who inflicted a first career defeat on Hatton in December 2007, makes his eagerly-awaited comeback against Juan Manuel Marquez on July 18 and is determined to reclaim his throne.
Besides having television’s best theme music and perfect narration from Liev Schreiber (I could listen to him read the phone book), on no other show could you possibly see these priceless moments portrayed in such entertaining fashion — and have them relate to a huge upcoming fight: Oscar De La Hoya passing gas, Floyd Mayweather Sr. making Kool-Aid and eating a taco in his car while driving, Ricky Hatton showing off his butt in a thong, Freddie Roach getting a haircut, Enzo Calzaghe borrowing a New York street musician’s guitar and playing for him, Roy Jones Jr. emotionally watching the election night announcement in Times Square that Barack Obama had won the presidency, rap star 50 Cent riding a Segway through Floyd Mayweather Jr.’s mansion, and Roger Mayweather shopping for Thanksgiving groceries.
“Pacquiao’s a hell of a fighter. In his last two fights, he looked good, but people forgettin’ about his fight with Erik Morales that he lost; people forgettin’ about him being knocked out twice before, but he’s a hell of a fighter. He’s a good little fighter…but they forgot about Erik Morales boxing the sh*t out of him,” stated returning undefeated pound-for-pound champion Floyd Mayweather Jr. as he shared his thoughts on the comparison to current pound-for-pound king Manny Pacquiao and their two performances against Ricky Hatton and Oscar De La Hoya. Check out what else he had to say as he spoke about his return to the ring to the assembled media in attendance. read more
JOE CALZAGHE insists he would want to keep fighting if he was Ricky Hatton.
Hatton is currently considering hanging up his gloves after being demolished by Manny Pacquiao inside two rounds.
But Calzaghe, who retired undefeated earlier this year, believes the Hitman will want to finish with a flourish.
The 37-year-old said: “If I was knocked out in the second round I’d want to keep fighting so I could go out with a win.
“I’m not going to tell Ricky what to do with his career — he needs to sit back and decide for himself.”
This footage was kept on the shelf per Freddie Roach’s request as to not tip off Team Hatton on their training techniques. Check out Manny Pacquiao’s blinding speed and power as he works the mitts with Freddie Roach in the ring. Straight from The Wild Card Gym. This video was shot by Brad Cooney of www.8countnews.com. View more
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