Manny Pacquiao and his management team will announce Saturday who the “People’s Champion” will fight next in a press conference at the Manila Hotel.
Although his publicity agents bill it as the inaugural presser of Manny Pacquiao Promotions, the event will actually put to rest speculation on who the two-time former world champion will face in June or July in a bout to be broadcast by local TV giant ABS-CBN at the Araneta Coliseum.
It will also allow Pacquiao’s followers to get a closer look at his new handlers—Shelley Finkel and Nicholas Khan, who visit Manila for the first time since they wooed “PacMan” away from fellow American Murad Muhammad last year.
Finkel and Khan arrived from Los Angeles on Friday with trainer Freddie Roach, looking toward a hectic couple of days with Pacquiao, who unveils his new promotional outfit today.
They are expected to confirm that the Filipino icon will face the Mexican Oscar Larios, a former World Boxing Council super bantamweight champion who is trying to secure a $450,000 purse to fight the left-handed bomber.
Finkel told boxingtalk.net on Wednesday that Larios is a dangerous opponent, but “Pacquiao should win and win in fashion” in front of a hometown crowd eager to see their idol in action.
The last time he fought on local soil, Pacquiao knocked out Fahsan 3K Battery of Thailand in the fourth round at the Fort Bonifacio grounds in Taguig City on Dec. 11, 2004.
The General Santos City native has been so busy filming TV commercials—and playing billiards into the wee hours of the morning—as of late that he had to be confined at the Cardinal Santos hospital for a few days’ rest.
But he kept up the pace after recovering from his exhaustion, even opening an office Friday at the Tektite Tower at the Ortigas Center in Pasig City as the nerve center of his promotions outfit.
