King J's Coverage Of Manny Pacquiao Vs Ricky Hatton Part II: Post Fight
The post fight conference was rather one sided, for unfortunately Ricky Hatton was rushed to the hospital and most of his team including Oscar De La Hoya all went to accompany him.
Legendary promoter Bob Arum opened the press conference with a joke about the swine flu. Personally I found it to be a bit ignorant and borderline racist but Arum stated that he promised his wife that he would use hand sanitizer after shaking his own Mexican fighter's hands. That fighter was super featherweight champion Humberto Soto who was victorious with a one sided TKO win over Gaudet.
Arum then went on to obviously give high praises to his number one cash cow Manny Pacquiao stating that in all 40 years of his boxing career he has never seen anyone like Manny. With Manny's speed, power, defense all improving with each fight. He even made several comparisons to his greatest fighter of all time Ali, and said that he promoted Ali when he was at his best and he feels Manny has the chance to even be greater than Ali was.
Arum went on to state that he will not volunteer any names for Manny's next fight but he will instead sit down with Roach and Manny and discuss what are the best options for a next opponent.
Arum did state that he felt Juan Manuel Marquez should be fighting either Valero or Soto and not Mayweather since Mayweather is the wrong weight for him. He then went on to state that if Mayweather wants a piece of this little Filipino then be my guest.
Golden Boy partner and hall of fame boxer Sugar Shane Molsey was sitting at the press conference table and Arum said if Shane wanted Manny then that would be ok as well. Shane just smiled it off as he always does dazzle us with his smile.
Freddie Roach came up to the podium and stated, "I'm the best trainer in the world cause I got the best fighter in the world."
The press crowd then applauds.
Roach stated that Cotto could fight Manny if he decided to come down in weight, same with Mosley.
Manny finally came to the podium and was completely humble and graceful for his huge win. He did not take any credit personally but wanted his team to take the credit collectively.
Steve Kim of Max Boxing asked Manny was that the hardest punch you have ever thrown? Manny replied with a very humble response and basically stated that he trained hard and he was thankful that his hard training did pay off in the fight.
Manny then invited everyone to join him at the Mandalay Bay where he would sing with his band from the Philippines later that night.
Bob Arum then said "mabuhay", which is a greeting in Manny's native language. He said I want all the Anglos to repeat after me and say "mabuhay"!
Manny then got mobbed by all the media for autographs and for pictures. His entourage said no more but Manny said no wait and wanted to sign every single request like the true people's champ that he is. I even let Manny borrow my sharpie marker and he did not want to leave until he returned it to me. If that is not a sweet kind gentleman then I do not know what is?
Legendary boxer financial manager, Shelly Finkel, thought the fight was a destruction.
I asked legendary boxing expert Bert Sugar what he thought about the fight and he said it was, "devastating".
I then asked him would he rank the this fight in his top 10 fights of all time? He then replied, "No way in order for that it has to be two sided, this was all Manny tonight".
You see the rest of us have to wear our press media credentials around our neck to get into this press conference but the legendary Bert Sugar just walks in with his signature cigar and its all love. That is when you know you have legendary icon status.
It was my great honor to be at the post fight conference at such a historical fight. With all due respect to Ricky Hatton and his fans I truly hope he is ok and will have a full speedy recovery. Bob Arum said over and over again he spoke to Hatton after the fight and he said please do not be discourage about losing to Manny because Manny is the greatest fighter in the world right now. I do not think there are too many people out there that would disagree with Arum right about now.
There will be a Part III to King J's Coverage of Manny Pacquiao vs Ricky Hatton with some glorious pictures from the fight and a few surprises in the form of a slide show. So check back soon fans!


.jpg)






