SACRAMENTO, CALIFORNIA?It is said that fortune favors the brave.
But is Manny Pacquiao moving too fast, too furious in pursuit of ring history?
Pacquiao has won world titles as a flyweight, super bantamweight and super featherweight and is desiring to become the first Filipino and Asian to win belts in four boxing weights.
He faces Chicago?s David Diaz at 135 lbs at the Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino in Las Vegas on June 28 (June 29, Sunday in Manila).
Manny has yet to snatch the American?s WBC lightweight crown to notch that historic fourth crown. But now comes his announcement that once he is finished with Diaz, Pacquiao has set his mind on a showdown with British superstar Ricky Hatton.
Is our national fist moving too quickly for his own good?
His detractors say that just because the speedometer goes all the way to 180 kilometers per hour doesn?t mean Manny has to drive the car that fast.
But Pacquiao appears to be traveling at breakneck speed at the moment.
Where is his navigator, Freddie Roach, when you need him?
Freddie?s favorite has told Ring Magazine that a fight with Hatton will be a good fight and that making it to the 140-pound division will be no sweat.
?I?m 150 lbs right now, ?Pacquiao told Ring Magazine, the bible of boxing. ?My sparring partners are always 140 to 150 lbs. It?s not a problem for me. And I?m not getting any younger. So why not??
Hatton himself is faced with some mouth-watering options. Now that Floyd Mayweather Jr. has hung up his gloves again, it is now probable that he?d box with Oscar de La Hoya.
And since Pacquiao has thrown his name as a possible opponent, dollar signs are dancing over the heads of the Manchester Hitman?s handlers. They might even want to change their minds about Ricky?s fight with Italian-American Paulie Malignaggi in November.
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Meantime, attendance at the Pacquiao-Diaz encounter in Vegas could be affected by the galloping price of gasoline, the way it affected the recent Kelly Pavlik-Gary Lockett fight at Atlantic City?s boardwalk.
Prices at the pump had been jaw dropping lately. They jumped 19 cents a gallon in California to $4.43 in the last week, averaged more than $4 a gallon nationwide for the first time?and has curbed attendance at Pavlik?s fight with Lockett at the Boardwalk on June 9th.
Coupled with falling real property values, high gasoline prices have cut attendance at Indian casinos in California and in Vegas casinos as well, with some forced to lower hotel room prices or let go of some employees.
Analysts expect the slowdown to be most dramatic at mid-market Las Vegas resorts that rely on tourists driving in from southern California?where most Pacquiao fans live.
Those tourists already began staying away in the early part of the year, before gas prices rocketed to their current levels.
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Couch potatoes and Joe Sixpacks of Filipino-American persuasion are keeping their fingers crossed. They are also muttering a few Hail Marys for Artemio Murakami to make the cut for this weekend?s US Open.
The 23-year old Asian Tour standout earned a ticket to the Open which marks the return of Tiger Woods to the Majors after knee surgery?by surviving the Asian qualifying tournament in Japan.
If it is any consolation to his local fans, Murakami has competed at Torrey Pines as an amateur, back when the South course was not yet a monstrosity
The 7,643-yard championship course is the longest in Open history by nearly 400 yards. It is also the longest majors course ever.
