Pacquiao Thanks Fight Saboteurs for Extra Publicity

MANILA–With the arrival of strength and conditioning coach Justine
Fortune Friday, Manny Pacquiao’s training shifted to higher gear as he
prepares for the all-important fight of his life opposite WBA champion
Lucas Matthysse on July 15.

Pacquiao, also the promoter of the mega-fight, dispelled rumors that
there might even be a possibility of a postponement of this battle
which he is treating with utmost concern and pride.

“We are shifting our training to higher gear now with less than two
months before the fight,” said Pacquiao, who like Matthysse, is deep
in training for their monumental clash at the posh Axiata Arena in
Kuala Lumpur.

Dubbed as “Fight of Champions,” the Pacquiao Vs Matthysse clash hopes
to equal, if not surpass the “Fight of a Lifetime” duel between
Mumammad Ali and Joe Bugner in Malaysia in 1975.

“That is malicious and untrue,” said Pacquiao, referring to published
reports that his inaugural promotional show under his MP Promotions
banner will be postponed. Calling the persons involved as “saboteurs,”
Pacquiao, the fighter, said he is very serious about winning this
fight as he knows that Matthysse is also hoping to retire him from
boxing.

“Ironically, I would like to thank these rumor-mongers for the extra
publicity that they are contributing to make this fight such a huge
success. I am turning this negative news into something good because
no news is actually bad news,” added Pacquiao.

Additionally, Matthysse’s Arano Box organization and Golden Boy
Promotions have concurred with Pacquiao.

“Given the wrong versions of the postponement of Pacquiao-Matthysse,
such as the news that we retweeted, Arano Box clarifies that the fight
has no problem and the date remains unchanged,” said Matthysse’s
manager Mario Arano on Tweeter, after Argentine TV network TyC Sports
reported that the fight was headed towards postponement. The news was
picked up by several other websites who are keenly keeping tabs of
everything that is related to the fight.

TyC Sports, the Spanish channel of Argentina, claimed that there were
disagreements between the promoters and the Kuala Lumpur organization,
a fact that doesn’t exist, according to Pacquiao.

Likewise, Havas Sports & Entertainment, a division of Havas Media Asia
Pacific, has been appointed as the International Media Rights and
Commercial Partner by fight promoters MP Promotions and Events for the
highly anticipated ‘Fight.’

The deal covers worldwide distribution across the Asia Pacific,
Europe, Latin America and Africa and includes media rights across all
platforms and devices including television, broadband, mobile, radio
and in-flight rights. All inquiries and expressions of commercial
interest should be sent to fight.champions@havasmedia.com.