Word War III Begins: Manny Pacquiao Calls Cotto a "Lice"

(Photo by Jacob de Golish/Getty Images)

Sound the alarm.

Hide the women and children.

The bombardment has started.

Boxing's Word War III has just began.

No, it's not the sound of Floyd Mayweather's mouth that started it again. The steroids issue is over and done. Pacquiao has been tested positive for using the Alaxan drug, but not steroids.

Neither is it Bob Arum starting a verbal showdown with UFC's Dana White.

Surprisingly, it seems that it is current pound for pound boxing king Manny Pacquiao who fired the first verbal jab.

He seemingly referred to Puerto Rican king of the ring Miguel Cotto as mere "lice."

In an article from the Philippine Daily Inquirer posted on Sept. 23, 2009 written by Frank Cimatu and Dennis Principe, it was reported that during Pacquiao's second day of training, he was flocked by fans and they yelled, "You can easily beat Cotto." He simply smiled and shot back, "We have shampoo anyway."

Some of you might wonder: Why in the world did Pacquiao answer that way?

Has Manny become so confident that he is brushing aside Cotto as a simple hair problem?

Is Cotto some kind of a lice wherein he would have to shampoo his fists in order to win?

Note that in his past fights, Manny usually just says that he would train as hard as he can and that he would pray ardently to God to guide him to victory.

Ladies and gentlemen, especially those who are not Filipinos, Manny Pacquiao was just playing around because the word "kuto" here in the Philippines actually means lice. Of course, Miguel Cotto's family name sounds like "kuto."

At this point, we don't know how team Cotto will react to this, but I do hope they won't take it seriously. Let's hope this doesn't escalate into something serious as both Pacquiao and Cotto are highly respectable fighters.

To all Cotto fans: It was just a joke from Manny, nothing more.

To all Pacquiao fans: no reason to worry. Manny is not belittling Cotto. He is training like hell right now.

Team Pacquiao knows that in this encounter, victory is not as clear as using Head & Shoulders to win against dandruff (Pacquiao currently endorses Head & Shoulders shampoo in one of the advertisements here in the Philippines).

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