The luncheon- press conference of pound-for-pound hero Manny Pacquiao and former world champion Joshua Clottey is expected to draw some of the big names in Texas to the $1.2 billion state-of-the-art Cowboys Stadium on Wednesday, Manila Time.Pacquiao’s adviser Michael Koncz said Team Pacquiao hadn’t seen anything like this before and told us that “there were many people simply happy to see Manny and it was way beyond what we’ve witnessed before.”
A smiling Pacquiao, ever ready to please fight fans signed gloves, autographs and posed for pictures further enhancing his already superstar image.
Koncz said that several hundred VIP season ticket holders to the Dallas Cowboys football games will attend the luncheon affair that will kick-start “The Event” which will take place on March 13 and which Top Rank promoter Bob Arum has predicted would be “something sensational.”
Koncz said Pacquiao “is no longer just a star in the Philippines and for Filipinos. He is a crossover star with Americans and others realizing what a champion he is. Everything is great and Manny is relaxed and rested and feeling fine.”
Pacquiao who is the only seven-division world champion and his celebrated trainer Freddie Roach and former world welterweight champion and current No. 1 contender Joshua Clottey along with Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones and Hall of Fame promoter Bob Arum will host the news conference which is projected to draw several hundred people including diehard fight fans who remember Pacquiao’s 11th round annihilation of Mexican legend Marco Antonio Barrera in San Antonio in November 2003.
Koncz said that Pacquiao, Clottey and key members of both teams will fly to New York for a wind-up tour stop at the Madison Square Garden Theater before Pacquiao buckles down to a tough training grind at the Wild Card Gym of Roach in Los Angeles.
Roach and conditioning expert Alex Ariza have said they are ready to make Pacquiao, who really doesn't need any prodding, to work as hard as ever, warning that Clottey is a dangerous foe.
Titled “The Event,” Pacquiao is expected to face a tough fight against the bigger and durable Clottey who can take a punch and packs a mean wallop of his own. The venue for the March 13 showdown will be the Cowboys Stadium which is the largest, most technologically advanced entertainment venue in the world. Pacquiao (50-3-2, 38 KOs) who is seeking a congressional seat from Sarangani in the May elections will be defending the World Boxing Organization welterweight title against No. 1 contender Clottey (35-3, 21 KOs), of Accra, Ghana, who fights out of Bronx, NY.
Top photo: Manny "Pacman" Pacquiao, General Santos, Philippines signs autographs after his arrival in Dallas,Texas Monday night for a press conference at Dallas Cowboys Stadium Tuesday to announce his upcoming World Welterweight championship against Joshua Clottey, Ghana. "The Event", will be held on Saturday,March 13 at Cowboys Stadium in Dallas,Texas and televised live on Pay-Per-View. -- Photo Credit: Chris Farina - Top Rank.
Source: philboxing.com
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