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PANGILINAN WANTS TO STAGE PACQUIAO FIGHT IN THE PHILIPPINES By Eddie Alinea PhilBoxing.com Sat, 25 Apr 2015  LOS ANGELES? Filipinos, who have been starving to see their boxing icon Manny Pacquiao fight in flesh will have that opportunity after a long nine years of waiting. Pacquiao, the reigning World Boxing Organization welterweight kingpin, last Thursday received a surprised call via video phone from a man who could make this happen ? telecommunications mogul Manuel ?Manny? Pangilinan ? who, among others, asked him about the possibility of having one of his future fights held in the country. Pangilinan, MVP to the business and sports communities, even suggested that should this be possible, the fight could be held at the cavernous 55,000-seat Iglesia Ni Cristo-owned Philippine Arena in Bocaue town in Bulacan Province, site of the PBA's 40th season inaugural games last October. Pacquiao, who will be fighting undefeated American World Boxing Council and World Boxing Association 147-pound crown-owner Floyd Mayweather Jr. Saturday (Sunday in Manila), readily subscribed to the idea, saying he and the owner of the Talk ?N Text ballclub in the pro-league PBA will talk about it when he comes back to the country after the mega fight. MVP, who is also the president of the Samahang Basketbol Ng Pilipinas and chairman of the Alliance of Boxing Associations in the Philippines, wished the only man on earth to win 10 world belts in eight weight divisions good luck in his coming encounter with the 47-0 win-loss record holder. ?Good idea, why not?? the 36-year-old Fighter of the Decade told this writer immediately after his conversation with the businessman-sportsman. ?It?s been really a long time since our countrymen saw me in flesh. Sabi ko pagusapan namin pagbalik ko.? ?Indeed, it?s about time for me to fight before our countrymen for the unequivocal support they?ve been lending me in my 20 years of professional career, the fighting Sarangani Congressman said. ?Bago ko man lamang isabit ang aking fighting gloves ay maipakita ko ang aking pasasalamat.? ?One of my last fights, maybe,? Pacquiao said. ?Or, maybe yung swan song ko. Mas maganda siguro,? he suggested. The last time Pacquiao fought in the Philippines was in 2006 when he scored a 12-round unanimous decision win over Mexican Oscar Larios in defense of his WBC international super-featherweight belt held at the Araneta Coliseum in Quezon City. The Larios assignment was sandwiched by his last two of three outings with Erik Morales, which he won via a 10th round technical knockout and a quick third round knockout victories. From Las Vegas, the Filipino ring icon traveled to San Antonio in Texas in 2007 where he stopped Jorge Solis in an 9th round KO, then back to Las Vegas where he fashioned out six consecutive triumphs, four of them via the short route in claiming the lightweight, junior welterweight and welterweight crowns for his fifth, sixth and seventh world championships. He then went back to Texas , this time in Arlington in 2010 where he scored two more wins, the last over Antonio Margarito for the latter?s junior-middleweight plum, his eighth, at the huge Dallas Cowboys Stadium. His next fights were held in Las Vegas including the time he lost his 147-pound championship to Tim Bradley in 2012 and regained it as fast from the same person two years later. Year 2012 was his bleakest in his prizefighting career when he suffered back-to-back defeats to Bradley and arch-rival Juan Manuel Marquez via a sixth round KO. He defended though his newly-reacquired crown twice in a row over Brandon Rios and Chris Algieri, both in Macau. Photo: The eight division world champion talks to telecom mogul Manny Pangilinan via video phone. Click here to view a list of other articles written by Eddie Alinea.  |
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