Veni, vidi, vinci.
He came, he saw, he conquered.
Now tonight (Saturday) Manny Pacquiao may be looking closely at the next opponent he must conquer in the boxing ring.
As for the coming, the seeing, the conquering, that sums up a jetlagged Pacquiao grand slam home run acceptance speech Friday night at the posh Capitale Restaurant on the Bowery in Manhattan Friday night.
Now tonight (Saturday) Pacman may get an up close and personal look at his October 17 Las Vegas opponent as Miguel Cotto defends his WBO welterweight title against challenger Joshua Clottey.
?Manny will be watching this fight very closely,? a source inside Team Pacquiao told me. ?Manny is viewing the winner of this fight as his last opponent before his next political campaign. There is nothing better than a first row view of your next foe.?
The Pinoy Idol plans to leave New York early Sunday to return to the Philippines.
Informed sources told me at the big event that, if popular Puerto Rican Cotto distinguishes himself in victory against the rugged Ghanaian, he will be Pacman?s final ring foe of 2009.
Upwards of 16,000 tickets have been sold for the big Garden show which comes on the eve of the annual Puerto Rican Day Parade on Fifth Avenue.
?Top Rank would prefer to keep it in house and they feel it would be a nice reward for Cotto, whose promotional contract would expire in December, to fight Manny.? one source said. ?They give Manny a formidable but quite beatable foe and, at the same, they keep Cotto in their promotional corral. They are not going to wait on Floyd Mayweather Jr. or Juan Manuel Marquez who are fighting each other July 18.?
It was 10:08 pm New York time, or about seven hours after Manny and his pretty wife Jinkee stepped off the Northwest Airlines flight from Manila via Tokyo, that the 2008 Fighter Of The Year stepped to the podium to accept the biggest prize at the Boxing Writers Association of America Dinner.
The theme from ?Rocky? accompanied Megamanny?s walk to the podium.
There was a Teleprompter available but it was difficult to tell if Pacman really used it fully.
His English was at times halting but always passable and he made it clear to one all that he is truly appreciative of this, his second such honor from the USA fight scribes.
It was the award?s prestige, Pacman said, which caused him to ?fly halfway across the globe? to accept it.
Pacuiao, Jinkee and their children were going on a family beach holiday in Bohol when promoter Bob Arum urged the couple to come to the Big Apple and not to shun the boxing writers annual dinner.
?I wanted Manny to show his appreciation for how the American media and the public have taken to him. This can?t be a one way street and, finally, both Manny and Jinkee understood the importance of this event.?
Pacquiao told me that he and his wife would sit ringside with Arum and his wife, Lovee.
On Sunday morning, it?s likely that Arum, his matchmaker Bruce Trampler and Pacman trainer Freddie Roach (Trainer Of The Year again at this dinner) will sit down to discuss the pros and cons of battling the Clottey-Cotto winner next.
To get the Pacman nod and the attendant money jackpot, Clottey would need to not just beat Cotto but to do so quite impressively.
All eyes in the Garden will be on boxing?s hottest attraction, Pacquiao, but Manny?s eyes will be glued to Cotto and Clottey.
This is, after all, a Pacman tryout.
