LAS VEGAS—The only thing more difficult than finding the next Manny Pacquiao is understanding the one we have now.
Go figure.
He wraps up his toughest fight yet, has blood drained from his right ear to ease the swelling there and shows a set of puffed eyes courtesy of laser-guided Miguel Cotto jabs.
And the one thing Pacquiao made sure Saturday night during a post-fight press conference at the MGM Grand was to invite the journalists present to watch his concert after doing their stories.
“I’m going to sing eight songs,” he promised.
And all of a sudden, he asked a reporter: “You want to hear one song?”
Then he actually sang. He hit the first line of Dan Hill’s “Sometimes When We Touch,” a song he performed when he appeared on the Jimmy Kimmel show when he was still training in Los Angeles—his first appearance on a national US television talk show.
“You want to hear more? Buy a ticket to the concert,” he said, drawing laughter from journalists.
“You’ll never see another guy like him,” said Top Rank chief Bob Arum.
Pacquiao’s preparation for the post-fight concert was one of the distractions people felt would get in the way of his training for the fight against Cotto.
Trainer Freddie Roach, in fact, was mildly bothered but shrugged off those rehearsals, saying it was Pacquiao’s way of blowing steam.
During the weigh-in on Friday, Pacquiao may even have inadvertently hinted at the outcome of the fight when he invited fans to make sure they had tickets to his concert.
“Let’s party after the fight,” he said.
He sure gave his supporters something to celebrate with a 12th round TKO of Miguel Cotto.
Pacquiao has morphed into a complete sports and entertainment package and has become a hit with not just American fight fans but with mainstream sports fans as well.
He has even learned enough of the English language to engage American reporters in a light banter during interviews. In fact, one such back-and-forth happened during the press conference, when a journalist asked him to clarify if he purposely leaned on the ropes to test Cotto’s power.
“You know sometimes you also have to be smart in the ring,” he said. “I let Cotto hit me because I wanted to test his power.”
“I was actually pretending it didn’t hurt, but it really hurt, you know,” said Pacquiao, eliciting laughter from his audience, which included some of the most respected fight journalists in the world.
