Up close with boxing greats

Doing reports for TV Patrol World and Sports Unlimited has taken me to many places to get a feel of how Manny "Pacman" Pacquiao and Oscar Larios are preparing for the fight today at the Araneta Coliseum.

In Los Angeles, I watched Manny train at the Wild Card Gym for Boxing and at Griffith Park for the early morning routine. Pacman is determined to make Filipinos happy by delivering another win on the ring.

I visited Larios in Guadalajara, Mexico where I saw him hard at work, training himself to win what he calls the biggest fight of his life.

I met Sylvester Stallone in Las Vegas, where he won the Cinematic Award, given by the most prestigious award giving body in boxing – The Boxing Writers Association.

Stallone believes that if Manny gains more than 50 pounds, he will be the heavyweight champion of the world.

Smoking Joe Frazier was also in the house and he says he would love to come back to Manila to reminisce the good boxing times.

Back in Los Angeles, I had a short chat with Oscar de la Hoya, who was voted the most good-looking world champion in boxing. De la Hoya was in a press conference promoting a fight, which his company, Golden Boy Promotions, has organized.

De la Hoya credits Pacquiao for inspiring more Filipinos to strive to become world champions. And the good news is, he may come to Manila for the fight.

At the famous Wild Card Gym, Jericho Rosales and Bayani Agbayani spent some hours shooting Pacquiao, The Movie.

Jericho gained the total respect of Manny and the boxing world after he underwent rigorous training to play the title role in the movie.

Jericho trained with Manny no less and his coach Freddie Roach. They had fun at the Wild Card Gym in Los Angeles, where they shot scenes with director Joel Lamangan for the movie.

Bayani Agbayani, on the other hand, is a close friend of Pacquiao’s real-life pal and trainor, Buboy Fernandez. This made it easy for him to play Buboy. As for very popular coach Freddie, considered one of the best coaches we have today, he says he loved shooting the movie so much he won’t mind being in more films someday.