Pacquiao out to grab spotlight
Credit to Author: Tempo Online| Date: Fri, 15 Mar 2019 09:21:39 +0000
By Nick Giongco
DALLAS, Texas – The landscape of the talent-rich welterweight division undergoes a major makeover this weekend when International Boxing Federation (IBF) 147-lb champion Errol Spence takes on Mikey Garcia and Manny Pacquiao making sure of his pivotal part in the impending change.
Spence is intending to clean up the division with eyes on beating the division’s other big names, Terence Crawford, Manny Pacquiao and Shawn Porter, after Saturday night’s clash with Garcia at the AT&T Stadium.
But Pacquiao’s presence could steal the thunder from the main event since the 40-year-old Filipino legend is doing something he’d never done before.
For the first time, Pacquiao will be at ringside to size up a potential rival, a practice that is alien to the eight-division champion in the many years he was on top of the game.
Pacquiao is planning in from Vienna, Austria, late Saturday morning with US boxing man Sean Gibbons, who believes that the skies will clear up after Saturday’s big fight.
The future of Pacquiao has remained blurred even in the weeks following his Jan. 23 victory over Adrien Broner in Las Vegas in the first defense of the World Boxing Association crown.
But with Pacquiao gracing a major matchup involving his fellow welterweights, Gibbons feels that the ground will shake in the coming days.
Like Spence and Porter, the World Boxing Council ruler, Pacquiao also fights under Al Haymon’s Premier Boxing Champions (PBC), which incidentally, is also aligned with Floyd Mayweather.
With Pacquiao in town and PBC staging the headliner, all fight fans have to do is connect the dots.