LAS VEGAS (Reuters) – There will be no world title on the line when Erik Morales and Manny Pacquiao meet in the ring for the third time in Las Vegas on Saturday night.
But such is the popularity of both men that organizers say it is on course to have one of the five highest attendances in Vegas fight history.
Promoter Bob Arum says he is poised to sell all 17,000 seats at the Thomas & Mack Arena, and 370 media representatives will be in attendance — the greatest number ever for a bout at that venue.
Game Console Wars The video game industry’s own clash of the titans reboots this week with the midnight launch of Sony’s PlayStation 3 and Sunday’s debut of Nintendo’s Wii.
Full coverage Pacquiao, the former flyweight and super bantamweight world champion, whose contest with Morales will be at the super featherweight limit of 130 pounds, is a hugely popular in his native Philippines.
In addition to being the country’s most successful athlete, he is a best-selling recording artist, an action movie star, and a potential politician.
FOCUSSED AGGRESSION
Morales, in contrast, does nothing but box, fighting with a focused aggression that has earned him fans around the world. It has also brought him tremendous success.
He won the World Boxing Council super bantamweight championship in 1997, and defended it nine times, and has held WBC titles at featherweight and super featherweight.
Morales won the first contest between the two, a unanimous points victory in March 2005. Pacquiao won the rematch in January this year, coming from behind to stop a tiring Morales in the 10th round of a hard-fought and enthralling contest.
The Mexican has suffered just four defeats in 52 fights, but all of them have been since 2002, and three have come in his last four bouts. That has led to some suggestions that his numerous ring wars have taken their toll and that, at age 30, his remarkable career may be nearing an end.
Morales, naturally, disputes that assertion.
“It’s very motivating for me to get back to the level I’m accustomed to,” Morales told reporters on Thursday. “I have two motivations: the people who want me to win, and the people who don’t want me to win.”
Game Console Wars The video game industry’s own clash of the titans reboots this week with the midnight launch of Sony’s PlayStation 3 and Sunday’s debut of Nintendo’s Wii.
Full coverage Pacquiao’s only defeat since 1999 was the first fight with Morales. He lost twice before that, earlier in his career when struggling to make the flyweight limit of 112 pounds.
Like Morales, he has become a box-office attraction not just for his accomplishments but the way he fights, frequently eschewing defense in favor of a two-fisted assault.
However, the momentum in the second bout changed in Pacquiao’s favor when he began varying his attack, and he says that he has been concentrating on developing new techniques for Saturday’s bout.
Whatever else happens, both fighters insist their bout will be a crowd-pleaser.
“What I plan to do, what I always plan to do, is make a good fight, to please not only the Filipino people, but all the people who love boxing,” Pacquiao said.
