THE highly-anticipated blockbuster showdown between the two explosive fighters in Filipino superstar Manny “The Destroyer” Pacquiao and Mexican IBF/WBA featherweight champion Juan Manuel “Dinamita” Marquez, which will be televised live by cable giant HBO on May 8, will be staged at the glitzy MGM Grand Garden Arena in Los Angeles, Nevada.
The 17,157-seater MGM Grand Arena is the very same battleground where Pacquiao scored a brilliant seven round knockdown of the previously undefeated South African champion Lehlohonolo “Benedict” Ledwaba to wrest the IBF super bantamweight crown in June 23, 2001.
For that, Pacquiao, then 22 years old, became the only second Filipino boxer to win a world title fight in the United States after Pancho Villa, who knocked out American Jimmy Wilde to win the world flyweight crown in June 1923 at the Polo Grounds in New York City.
