Top US shows to feature Pacquiao
Jun Medina
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Manny “PacMan” Pacquiao’s global popularity, especially in the United States, is on the rise based on the
kind of attentions he’s been getting lately from some of the most popular American television programs.
Pacquiao is increasingly becoming a crossover star, his promoter Bob Arum said proudly Sunday, citing
forthcoming features being made on the Filipino boxing icon by top-rating TV newsmagazine "60 Minutes" on
CBS and "Good Morning America" (GMA) on ABC.
“It just shows that interest in Manny has transcended sports, gone beyond that,” Arum told boxing scribe
Michael Marley of Examiner.com. by phone Sunday from his Las Vegas home. “'Good Morning America' on
the ABC network is also going to do something on Manny. It is really phenomenal how the interest is
widening on PacMan.”
Pacquiao, 31, is the only boxer to have been on the cover of Time Magazine, the popular US newsweekly.
The reigning pound-for-pound best boxer in the world recently guested in the popular late-night show Jimmy
Kimmel Live! on ABC where he endeared himself to the American public by gamely belting out a the popular
70s hit song “Sometimes When We Touch.”
60 Minutes,one of the most popular and longest running news magazine on primetime American television,
is on its 42nd year and offers hard-hitting investigative reports, interviews, feature segments and profiles of
people in the news. It airs at 7 p.m. Sundays.
GMA, on the other hand, is the second top-rating morning news and talk show in the United States that runs
seven days a week, including its weekend editions.
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Pacquiao eyes unification fight vs. Mosley
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Manny “PacMan” Pacquiao is eyeing a title unification fight with “Sugar” Shane Mosley as early as July this
year, should both hurdle their coming fights. Pacquiao will defend his World Boxing Organization (WBO)
welterweight title against Joshua Clottey on March 13, while Mosley has signed a contract staking his World
Boxing Association (WBA) welter belt against Floyd Mayweather Jr. on May 1.
Pacquiao, who is currently training for his coming fight in Los Angeles, thinks Mosley will beat Mayweather
convincingly in their May showdown booked at the MGM Grand Arena in Las Vegas.
If that happens, and assuming he gets past Clottey in the first defense of his WBO title, then a unification
mega bout between him and Mosley is the logical thing to do.
“Shane like [me] will force pressure on Floyd for every minute of every round,” Pacquiao told Violito
Tanamor of TheBoxingHistorian.com.
“Shane has fought the best in the welterweight division for over a decade and has faced the best the division
has to offer. I think he will be too much for Mayweather and will stop Floyd.”
Pacquiao’s trainer Freddie Roach is confident his prized Filipino student will beat Clottey and will then face
the winner of Mosley-Mayweather in July.
Pacquiao made it clear that he is not looking past Clottey and is training very hard for the bigger and stronger
slugger from Ghana.
He also said he is quite excited to be fighting before a huge live audience at the modern Dallas Cowboys
Stadium in Texas.
“I feel honored and privileged to be fighting in such a venue,” he said.
Pacquiao-Mosley would be more exciting than Pacquiao-Mayweather because of the boxers’ style of fighting.
Roach, a four-time Trainer of the Year, said in a previous interview that a match-up between PacMan and
Mayweather could be boring because the latter loves to run and is a defense-oriented fighter.
In contrast, Mosley is a come-forward boxer-puncher just like Pacquiao, and both have high knockout ratios
at the highest levels of fighting.
Pacquiao has scored four consecutive KO wins against elite opponents in his last four fights, namely: David
Diaz, ninth round KO; Oscar De La Hoya, eighth round TKO; Ricky Hatton, second round KO; and Miguel
Cotto, 12th round TKO.
Pacquiao collected world titles at lightweight, junior welterweight, and welterweight and cemented his
stature as the world’s best pound-for-pound in those four super fights.
Mosley, on the other hand, won his WBA title by stopping the favored Antonio Margarito in the ninth round of
their January 24 title fight.
Before that, he knocked out the brash former welterweight titlist Ricardo Mayorga with barely a few seconds
left in the final round in July 2008.
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