VANCOUVER – I congratulate the honorees who were person­ally invited by President Noynoy “P-Noy” Aquino during the EDSA Heroes Awarding Ceremony at the Malacanang Palace in the Philip­pines last February 26. It was but a momentous visit for me and it’s been a long time since I last broke bread with some of those distinguished personalities, especially Edna Corrales, Deedee Siytangco and Sandee Masigan -- way back when I was active mem­ber of the coaching staff of the Philippine Team that saw action in various international competitions in the late 80’s and early 90’s be­fore I and my family migrated to Canada.

‘Twas a feeling of déjà vu; an experience of feeling sure that one has already witnessed or experi­enced a current situation, even though the exact circumstances of the previous encounter are uncer­tain and were perhaps imagined.

Nevertheless, Malacanang Pal­ace has improved by leaps and bounds in terms of infrastructure and design since my last visit there nearly 20 years ago where I and the gallant members of the 1990
Beijing Asian Games boxing led by then Phil­ippine Sports Commis­sion (PSC) chairman Cecil Hechanova were invited and honored by President Corazon C. Aquino, President Noynoy’s late mother and icon of EDSA Revolu­tion, for bringing home the lone gold medal courtesy of boxer Ro­berto Jalnaiz.

Modesty aside, I am proud to mention that I became one of the only few lucky people to get in­vited and honored in Malacanang Palace by two presidents who are mother and son.
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Due to my hectic schedule in sports these past weeks where I had to travel to the Philippines to fulfill some commitments in the PAL Golf Invitational Champion­ship, among other activities I failed to provide some updates about the press conferences in the Unit­ed States last month that kicked off the May 7 showdown between Rep. Manny Pacquiao and Shane Mosley at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, Nevada.
From the stories written by our international correspondent Alex Vidal, who covered the press con­ference in Las Vegas, here’s what some of the principals had to say
onthe 12-roundWBO welterweight tussle: MATT BLANK, Chairman and CEO of SHOWTIME Networks Inc: “We are incredibly pleased to be in business with Bob Arum and Top Rank, the premier promoter in boxing today. This is going to be a tremendous event and hugely successful for the fighters, the pro­moters, the distributors, fight fans and the sport of boxing and we are delighted to be a part of it.
“It is a tremendous privilege to be a part of what surely will be the biggest boxing event of the year and involves one of the world’s greatest athletes in all of sports.”

KEN HERSHMAN, Executive Vice President and General Man­ager, SHOWTIME Sports
“This is a long time coming. It’s now our job to take boxing to the next level and bring it back to the masses and I think we’re on the right track. This is a marriage that makes sense and I think it’s going to be a very productive and long lasting one for all of us.

“We’re going to go deeper and broader then we ever have before. We’re going to launch our FIGHT CAMP 360° series around this show. We’re going to be airing that show both on CBS and SHOW-TIME and I think it’s going to be really compelling television.

“The other thing that this fight has going for it is it benefits from one of the most ambitious SHOW-TIME sports schedules in history. We have, kicking off Saturday night in New Jersey, our Grand Prix Heavyweight MMA Tourna­ment, we have our bantamweight tournament finale, our Super Six semifinals coming up ... so it’s just a perfect confluence of events and time for SHOWTIME Sports and we couldn’t be happier.”

BOB HALLORAN, MGM Grand Sports Entertainment Director: “We’re not happy you’re (Pacquiao) back, we’re ecstatic. We know that when you get the best promoter you ultimately get the best fighter and that’s what we have in Con­gressman Pacquiao and Shane Mosley. Globally, the most popular fighter in the world today is Manny. We got the best.
“Every time this guy fights we open the ticket office and then they all go home in an hour. We’ve got about 580 tickets left for this fight and we’ll have about 30,000 closed circuit tickets available at our different properties around Las Vegas.
“You may not have this many cameras at the Grammy’s on Sun­day night. They’ll be lucky if they have this many.”

MANNY PACQUIAO: “I’m ex­cited to be fighting on May 7 be­cause it’s covered by SHOWTIME and CBS. It’s going to give more boxing fans a chance to see the fight.
“I am going to train hard be­cause I don’t want to disappoint the people who are going to watch this fight. Sugar Shane is a good fighter and he’s a champion so I will never underestimate him. Yes, I like all the media attention. We are trying to make this the fight of the year and that’s why we will train so hard.”

SHANE MOSLEY: “Manny’s a great guy and when I look at him I look at him as a true competitor. I look at him as someone who really wants to win. He loves the sport of boxing and he loves to fight.”
How do you beat a Manny Pac­quiao? “I think it’s very hard but styles make the fight. Being that he’s a very exciting fighter and likes to bring it, which leaves openings for me. We’ll see when we get to the fight. It’s not the African-Amer­ican style that will beat him. It’s my style that will beat him. Everybody fights differently and styles make the fight and in this fight you have two guys engaging and I think I have what it takes to get the job done.

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