While news conferences at Lord’s and Twickenham usually have all the razzmatazz of a Requiem Mass, you can be sure that when there’s a big fight that needs promoting, the nation’s boxing writers will get a little more than a ream of platitudes to go with their custard creams.
So at London’s Imperial War Museum, we were treated to a history lesson on the Second World War from promoter Bob Arum and some rhymes from Ricky Hatton’s trainer Floyd Mayweather Sr.
Oh, and the startling revelation from Manny Pacquiao’s trainer Freddie Roach that his charge ran away from home as a boy after discovering his father had eaten his dog.
Just as well really, because all the signs are that the build-up to Hatton-Pacquiao on 4 May is going to be a veritable love-in, with both men engaging in a game of darts down Hatton’s local on Saturday (Hatton won with a double two) before piling on the mutual admiration at the news conference on Monday.
“The Philippine army never surrendered throughout World War II and fought the Japanese army to a standstill,” said Arum. “And Manny represents the heart and spirit of the Filipino people.
“It’s hard for you to imagine what Manny Pacquiao means to the 90m people in his country.
“There’s been insurgencies that have been going on for 40 years, and the day Manny fights there’s a truce between the government and the guerrillas, everyone lays down their guns.”
Arum went on to suggest that Pacquiao, a four-weight world champion, would be president of his country “within 10 years”. To anyone who was present at the Trafford Centre at the weekend, that probably doesn’t seem too far-fetched.
There are 200,000 Filipinos living in the UK, and most of them seemed to be in Manchester to cheer their man on. Remarkably, Hatton’s fans were outpointed in ‘The Hitman’s’ backyard. As Pacquiao put it, “it shouldn’t be called Manchester, it should be called Manny-chester.”
The clash at the MGM Grand, between light-welterweight king Hatton and pound-for-pound king Pacquiao, is being billed as ‘The Battle of East and West’. And in the absence of any pre-fight malice between the boxers themselves, much will be made of the coming together of two great sets of fans.
Mayweather Sr, who joined Hatton’s camp before his defeat of Paulie Malignaggi last November, is so impressed with his own powers as a trainer that he’s taken to writing poems almost entirely about himself.
“Ladies and gentlemen, this is Floyd ‘Joy’ Mayweather Sr,” rapped Floyd, “former fighter, now poetic writer. I’m gonna shock your mind, I’m one of a kind, I’m the greatest trainer of all time.”
It didn’t end there, and you can’t help feeling Hatton’s ego might take a bit of a buffeting over the next two months, what with the ‘Bard of Boxing’ giving it bunches and Pacman’s followers making their very significant presence felt at every turn.
As for the fight itself, Hatton believes his size and strength will be the “key factor”, and it is true that Pacquiao, who started out life as a light-flyweight, will not have fought anyone as physically imposing as Hatton before.
Roach, however, believes Hatton will not have encountered speed like Pacman’s, or indeed anyone as dedicated to his craft.
“What sets him apart is his dedication and his work ethic, he trains hard and he lives clean,” Roach, who has worked with Mike Tyson, Oscar de la Hoya and Bernard Hopkins, among others, told BBC Sport.
“Outside of training camp, Manny’s just finished making his seventh movie and he’s a singer and so-forth.
“But once he comes through the doors of the Wild Card Gym, all that goes away. He trains at least 40 rounds a day, and that’s why he’s great.”
If you had the hopes of 90m countrymen resting on your narrow shoulders, you’d like to think you’d also put in the hours. Which is why, for perhaps the first time in his career, Hatton won’t necessarily gain an edge through his own vociferous fans.
Hatton may be a hero in his country, but Pacquiao, as Hatton is the first to admit, is not far off being a god in his.
