LONDON - Today, December 26, is Boxing Day. It is a public holiday here in the UK.

Boxing Day is a British tradition which dates back to the Victorian times. It is a day when the royalty and the rich give out gifts to their servants and the poor. It is not the day when everyone goes out of town to knock each other out.

AN OFFICIAL of the United Nations Children’s Fund (Unicef) proposed Wednesday that government tap world boxing champ Manny Pacquiao to champion children’s rights because the Philippines is not likely to meet its millennium development goal (MDG) on universal primary education by 2015. (more)

Alex P. Vidal

LAS VEGAS, Nevada — Was the Golden Boy bloated?

Oscar De La Hoya could be weighing at least 149 lbs or two pounds over the welterweght limit when he tipped the scale during the official weighing December 5 at the MGM Grand Arena for his 12-round “Dream Match” with Manny Pacquiao on December 6.

This suspicion emerged after the camp of Pacquiao expressed disbelief when the Filipino underdog officially weighed 142 lbs. Some 20 minutes earlier, he was 146 lbs when he tested his weight in another scale provided by the Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino, a hotel located half a mile from the MGM Grand, where Team Pacquiao stayed since December 1. (more…)

LAS VEGAS, Nevada — There was no doubt that Manny Pacquiao, the new Teki god of punch business, is next to “The Greatest” Muhammad Ali, the protege of Angelo Dundee, who admitted for the first time in more than 40 years that he erred when he predicted that Oscar De La Hoya would easily outslick and overpower the Filipino “Mexicutioner” who will turn 30 on December 17.

“I was dead wrong,” sobbed the 86-year-old Dundee. “Maybe I’ll be right next time. What’s the difference?”(more)

A MALACAÑANG official said People’s Champ Manny Pacquiao is being eyed for a congressional seat in Metro Manila in 2010.

This despite the advice of some close allies of the Filipino boxing icon to focus at the moment on his boxing career instead of politics and the forthcoming elections which is still more than a year away.(more)