Manny Pacquiao seems to win something, whether it’s a fight or an award, just about every time he makes the long trip to the US.
The newly elected congressman from the Philippines accepted his third Fighter of the Year award on Friday, while his trainer Freddie Roach was honored for the fourth time by the Boxing Writers Association of America.
“Tonight I overflow with joy and gratitude. I am thankful that, just like Muhammad Ali and Joe Frazier and other boxers, I decided to get into boxing,” Pacquiao said.
Pacquiao won by a landslide in the voting by the organization’s members, after a year that featured a spectacular second-round knockout of Ricky Hatton to win a light welterweight belt and a brutal 12th-round stoppage of Miguel Cotto that gave Pacquiao a welterweight title and belts in a record seven divisions.
Pacquiao also accepted a special award as Fighter of the Decade.
“I confronted poverty by trusting God and dreaming big,” Pacquiao said. “I was convinced I could succeed in boxing. The boxing ring could be the breeding ground for my dreams.”
Accompanied by his wife, Jinkee, and most of his family, Pacquiao remained in New York to watch Cotto challenge junior middleweight champion Yuri Foreman yesterday in the first fight at Yankee Stadium in more than three decades.
He will then head to Washington tomorrow to meet with US Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, promoter Bob Arum said, before a family vacation in Mexico.
Then it’s back to the Philippines, where Congress convenes next month.
Meanwhile, Arum will continue work on perhaps the most highly anticipated fight in decades, between Pacquiao and the undefeated Floyd Mayweather Jr — the two contenders for the unofficial title of world’s pound-for-pound champion. The two nearly reached an agreement to fight earlier this year, but negotiations broke down when Mayweather insisted on Olympic-style drug testing and Pacquiao refused to have blood drawn within 24 days of a fight.
Pacquiao went on to defeat Joshua Clottey before 51,000 fans at Cowboys Stadium near Dallas, while Mayweather packed the MGM Grand in Las Vegas for an impressive victory over Shane Mosley.
Arum declined to discuss details of the negotiations, in keeping with an agreement that he made with Richard Schaefer of Golden Boy Promotions, who is working on behalf of Mayweather. But the 78-year-old Arum said that Pacquiao is now willing to have blood tests within 14 days of the fight, the cutoff point that Mayweather had initially agreed to.
Arum also said he believes the fight, which would likely happen in November, will end up in Las Vegas rather than Cowboys Stadium or another venue that could pack upward of 100,000.
“The key element, if the fight happens, we’re finding out now is that Manny Pacquiao in Las Vegas is Frank Sinatra times a hundred,” Arum said on Friday.
Shohei Ohtani and his wife arrived in South Korea with his Los Angeles Dodgers teammates yesterday ahead of their season-opening games with the San Diego Padres next week. Ohtani, wearing a black training suit and a cap backwards, was the first Dodgers player who showed up at the arrival gate of Incheon International Airport, west of Seoul. His wife, Mamiko Tanaka, walked several steps behind him. As a crowd of fans, many wearing Dodgers jerseys, shouted his name and cheered slogans, Ohtani briefly waved his hand, but did not say anything before he entered a limousine bus with his wife. Fans held placards
Taiwan’s Tai Tzu-ying yesterday advanced to the quarter-finals at the All England Open, beating Kim Ga-eun of South Korea 21-17, 21-15. With the win, Tai earned a semi-final against China’s He Bingjiao, who beat Michelle Li of Canada 21-9, 21-9. Defending champion An Se-young defeated India’s P.V. Sindhu 21-19, 21-11. An on Wednesday cruised into the second round, unlike last year’s men’s winner, Li Shifeng, who suffered a shock defeat. South Korea’s An, the world No. 1, overcame Taiwan’s Hsu Wen-chi 21-17, 21-16 to set up the match against Sindhu. In other women’s singles matches, Taiwan’s Sung Shuo-yun lost 21-18, 24-22 against Carolina Marin of
EYEING TOP SPOT: A victory in today’s final against Storm Hunter and Katerina Siniakova would return 38-year-old Hsieh Su-wei to the world No. 1 ranking Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei and Elise Mertens on Thursday secured a spot in the women’s doubles finals at the BNP Paribas Open after dispatching Nicole Melichar-Martinez of the US and Australia’s Ellen Perez 6-2, 7-6 (7/5) at Indian Wells. Hsieh and her Belgian partner Mertens, who won the Australian Open in late January, coasted through the first set after breaking their opponents’ serve twice, but found the going tougher in the second. Both pairs could only muster one break point over 12 games, neither of which were converted, leaving the set to be decided by a tiebreaker. Hsieh and Mertens took a 6-3 lead,
DOUBLES PAYBACK: Hsieh Su-wei and Elise Martens avenged their defeat in the quarters at the Qatar TotalEnergies Open against Demi Schuurs and Luisa Stefani Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei on Wednesday advanced to the semi-finals of the women’s doubles at the BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells, California. Hsieh and partner Elise Mertens of Belgium dispatched Demi Schuurs and Luisa Stefani 6-1, 6-4 to set up a clash against Nicole Melichar-Martinez of the US and Australia’s Ellen Perez for a spot in the final of the WTA 1000 tournament. Hsieh and Martens made a blistering start to their rematch after they lost to Schuurs and Stefani in the quarter-finals at the Qatar TotalEnergies Open last month, winning three games without reply at the start of the first set