Manny Pacquiao, the Filipino boxing icon and the world’s only eight-division world champion, flew into London from Los Angeles on Wednesday evening with his wife Jinkee – and will have dinner at Buckingham Palace later this week.
Pacquiao, a congressman in The Philippines, was invited by Prince Harry, a member of the royal family. Pacquiao will dine with the prince and will then be taken on a tour of Buckingham Palace.
In an interview with The Telegraph last year, Pacquiao said that his dream “was to have tea with The Queen at Buckingham Palace”.
Pacquiao, a self-confessed fan of the monarch, has even called one of his daughters ‘Queenie’ after Queen Elizabeth.
As far back as 2008, when Pacquiao was staying in a Park Lane hotel during a media tour in the UK prior to his successful fight against Ricky Hatton, the prize-fighter could barely contain his excitement when I told him, when we met in the Grosvenor House Hotel, that Buckingham Palace was less than a two-minute walk away.
Already this year, as negotiations continue for Pacquiao to face unbeaten American Floyd Mayweather in a ?165 million superfight in Las Vegas in May, Pacquiao has judged Miss Universe in Miami, Florida.
