Jack Biantan
Contributor

LONDON - On June 8, 2002, the night Lennox Lewis pummeled Mike Tyson, me and a number of Filipino friends were crammed in the living room of my London home.

It was already 5 a.m. in London when the fight started and most of us were too tired to celebrate Lewis’s victory.

Most were swearing because we put our bets on the aging but still charismatic Iron Mike and watching live TV at 5 a.m. is like torture, we just could not wait for the referee to raise Lewis hands so we could jump to our beds.

Some of my friends had to report for work at 7 a.m. and I can only imagine how they could work without any sleep all night. I was lucky it was my day off.

But in spite of the lack of sleep, we were all in a happy mood when I started leading all my friends to the door. Only one man put smiles on our faces that sleepy morning, Pacman.

Manny Pacquiao was already a household name in the Philippines during the time but he was not a world wide phenomenon yet. He was not the main card drawer. He was only co-starring in the Tyson-Lewis main event.

But what a performance he delivered in front of 12,000 fans which stormed the Pyramid Arena in Memphis Tennessee to witness the supposed comeback fight of Iron Mike.

His two-round demolition of Mexican Jorge Eliezer Julio not only impressed the tough American boxing audience. It also attracted top American promoters who made sure he would no longer co-star in his next fight.

His performance that night put him on the minds of the promoters that the Pacman deserved to be in the main draw, the leading man in the business of prize fighting.

That night also started his journey into immortality as he disposed off his opponents one by one, starting with Thai Fahprakorb Rakkiatgym on Oct. 26, 2002, in Davao del Sur up to David Diaz whom he knocked out in Las Vegas in June this year. They just fell down one-by-one like pin balls at the SM bowling alley.

Pacquiao was being groomed then to challenge the over rated British champion Prince Naseem Ahmed.

The thought that we could watch Pacman live here in London made us, legions of Filipinos fans here, excited.

Hamed fought Barrera in Las Vegas on June 4, 2001 but was beaten black and blue and lost via a unanimous decision verdict.

He did not know what hit him during that time that he was shadow of himself after that fight. He tried to get back to ring the following year on May 18 at the Excel Arena against Manuel Calvo. He won via unanimous decision but his performance was so bad that he decided to retire from boxing after that.

Retirement

His retirement dashed all our hopes of watching Pacman fight in UK. Hamed was the only decent fighter here in UK that could challenge Pacquiao in the bantam and featherweight divisions.

When Pacman moved up to the lightweight division and defeated David Diaz this year, the hopes of all Filipinos here came back to life.

There is now a great possibility that he could come to UK anytime next year to fight British superstar Ricky Hatton.

That will be amazing and I am already starting to save my pounds just to see Pacman fight the Manchester City Hitman.

Most London tabloids prefer Hatton to fight Oscar De La Hoya in UK but according to Hatton in one of his interviews, he prefers to fight Pacquiao as they are more or less on the same height and weight.

Fighting De La Hoya will be a big risk for Hatton as the former Olympic gold medallist is too big for him like Floyd Mayweather.

Hatton suffered his only defeat from Mayweather, a 10 round TKO, in August last year.

Regardless of the result of the Pacquiao vs. De La Joya fight on Dec. 6, Ricky Hatton and his handlers are already preparing for a fight against the Pacman. De La Hoya has promised earlier that the fight with Pacquiao will be his last before he finally retires.

If the Hatton camp is already preparing for the Pacquiao fight then there is a strong possibility that the Hatton vs. Pacquiao clash is already in the can. Remember De La Hoya is also the promoter of Hatton in the USA.

Venue

People are talking about the 100,000 capacity Wembley stadium as the possible venue of the Pacquiao-Hatton clash. It really depends on when will the fight will be. If the fight will be between January to April, then Wembley will be out of question.

Those months are cold months and Wembley, although it has a movable roof, it does not cover the entire stadium when there is bad weather. Both fighters will end up having flu or cold after the match if they hold the fight in Wembley in those months.

Wembley as a venue is out of question from January to April. But after those months, June would be too far away. So another venue is now on the list.

And that is the Millennium Stadium in Cardiff city, Wales. This is one of the few stadiums in Europe which has a retractable roof. It has a capacity of more than 75,000 for rugby and football matches. But with boxing, it could house more than 80,000.

Just thinking of Pacman fighting the Hitman at the Millennium Stadium has already filled my big mouth with juices.

But before we think about that fight, me and my Filipino friends will once again have one night of no sleep on Dec. 6 at my
Pareng Lindo’s house, where he has a big screen high definition TV.

We will watch the Pacman beat the hell out of the Golden Boy or we will witness the Golden Boy swallow the Pacman.

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(December 1, 2008 issue)
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