BACOLOD CITY — Bacolod City Mayor Evelio Leonardia will once again carry Manny Pacquiao’s championship belt into the ring during his rematch against Marco Antonio Barrera on Oct. 6 in Las Vegas.
Pacquiao, in a telephone interview from Cebu Saturday, said he asked Leonardia to carry his belt because “the mayor is a good friend, and the people of Bacolod have been kind to me.”
Leonardia was the one who carried Pacquiao’s belt when the Filipino boxing champion defeated Mexican fighter Erik Morales during their super featherweight fight at the Thomas and Mack Center in Las Vegas, Nevada on Nov. 18, 2006.
The HBO pay-per-view fight extravaganza, the third match-up between Pacquaio and Morales dubbed the “Grand Finale,” was watched by millions of people all over the world.
Leonardia said on Sunday he would be honored to carry Pacquiao’s championship belt at the boxer’s next fight.
The mayor recalled he carried the championship belt of Pacquiao for the first time during the boxer’s fight with Oscar Larios at Araneta Coliseum in July 2005 and in his fight against Eric Morales in Las Vegas in November of the same year.
“It was Pacquiao who asked me to carry the belt into the ring and I was even surprised. But I was happy to do it as a show of moral support as a friend and a Filipino,” Leonardia said.
Leonardia said he and Pacquiao first met through a common friend in 2005.
Leonardia said he had Pacquiao named as adopted son of Bacolod City during the city’s charter day on Oct. 19, 2005 “for the inspiration he had given to the Filipinos and the boxers, many of whom come from Bacolod City and Negrosm, Occidental.”
Leonardia, who has become fast friends with the boxing champion, is one of the godfathers of Pacquiao’s daughter, Mary Divine Grace, who was baptized in December 2006.
When Pacquiao came to Bacolod City in July 2006, a huge crowd gathered in the streets to cheer him in a parade organized by Leonardia.
On Saturday, the mayor visited Pacquiao who was recovering from fever in Cebu where he has been training for his October fight, and said he was there to give moral support to an adopted son of Bacolod.
Pacquiao said he was feeling better, his training was on schedule and going very well but he could not say how the fight would go.
“Bahala na si Lord. [It’s up to the Lord.] He is the only one who knows how the fight will go. Let us just pray,” he said.
Pacquiao said he would leave for the United States on Sept. 22 for the Oct. 6 fight and would return immediately after.
He said he hoped to come to Bacolod City sometime between Oct. 15 and 18, to join the MassKara Festival, the city’s weeklong merrymaking event held every October.
Pacquiao also promised to bring here his MP Warriors basketball team to play an exhibition game against a local team during the MassKara Festival.
