Coming soon: Pacman and Rocky

By Abac Cordero Updated January 13, 2009 12:00 AM

Pacquiao and Stallone

Manny Pacquiao is going to Hollywood – not to train at the Wild Card Gym but to do a movie with Sylvester Stallone.

Pacquiao’s business manager Erik Pineda yesterday said the boxing superstar met with Stallone, the Hollywood action star, last Jan. 6 at the latter’s Los Angeles office.

They talked about the movie being planned by Stallone, who captured the world’s imagination with his role as boxer Rocky Balboa in a string of “Rocky” movies that spanned three decades.

According to Pineda, Pacquiao even brought his sons, Michael and Jimwell, to the meeting. Stallone gifted the young Pacquiaos with a pair of boxing gloves.

The gloves had the signature of former world light-heavyweight champion Tony Tarver, who played a major role in the last of six Rocky movies (aired in 2006).

“Everything is in the planning stage but what’s certain is that Sylvester Stallone wants Manny Pacquiao in the movie as one of the co-stars,” said Pineda.

“It’s not a boxing movie but something like ‘Rush Hour’ (a Jacky Chan-Chris Tucker hit),” said Pineda, who welcomed Pacquiao at the airport yesterday morning.

Pacquiao arrived from Los Angeles where he spent Christmas with his family and at the same time stayed close to his wife Jinkee who delivered their fourth child last Dec. 30.

Jinkee and the baby girl, named Queen Elizabeth, would stay in the US until Jan. 16 to make sure that it’s safe for them to take the grueling 15-hour flight to Manila.

Upon his arrival at around 5 a.m., Pacquiao stayed at the airport and took the first flight out to his hometown in General Santos City at 7 in the morning.

Pacquiao, according to Pineda, didn’t want to spend time in Manila because he wanted to catch up on his studies at Notre Dame where he’s finishing a business course.

Pacquiao was also excited to suit up for his basketball team that is entered in an upcoming tournament.

The boxer, however, may not be in the country for long. He wants to be at ringside when Antonio Margarito, whom he might face in the future, fights Shane Mosley on Jan. 24 at the Staples Center in Los Angeles.

Pacquiao is set to face Ricky Hatton on May 2 in Las Vegas, and will soon launch the press tour that will take both fighters to England and key cities in the United States. He begins training on March 1.

Meanwhile, one of Pacquiao’s buddies in LA, Greg Asuncion, has reportedly filed an “unlimited” civil case against trainer Freddie Roach for an incident that took place last October at the Wild Card Gym.

Asuncion claimed that Roach hit him from behind after he was asked to step out of the gym while Pacquiao trained. But there are claims, too, that no hitting ever took place.

Three Pacman bouts lined up in 2009

Manny Pacquiao, his promoter Bob Arum hinted, is open to three fights this year.

The Filipino superstar is locked on to face Britain’s Ricky Hatton on May 2 in Las Vegas, and is hoping to land an even bigger fight against Floyd Mayweather Jr. later on.

But Arum said if Mayweather, who retired last June as the undefeated pound-for-pound champion, doesn’t come out in the open, Pacquiao might consider two more fights.

Pacquiao said he wants to retire this year, and Arum, the legendary Top Rank chief, wants to make sure that boxing’s biggest draw today makes the most of his chances.

“If Floyd Mayweather is not available after we fight Hatton, then we can fight Edwin Valero,” said Arum, close to finalizing the deal with the Hatton people for the May 2 bout.

“There are a number of people out there although the fight may not be as big as Mayweather,” he added after dropping the name of the Venezuelan knockout artist.

Among the other worthy contenders are Joan Guzman or Zab Judah and, of course, Juan Manuel Marquez, the only fighter who really came close to beating Pacquiao in nearly three years.

Again, none of these fights can match the attention a fight with Mayweather would draw, considering that it will be a fight between two pound-for-pound champions of the same era.

“If Mayweather is not there, we can fight two more fights to make up for it. Manny can fight three times this year,” said Arum over the telephone.

But Pacquiao’s trainer Freddie Roach wants Pacquiao going up against Hatton, and then Mayweather.

“In a perfect world, I would like to see him fight Ricky Hatton and then Floyd Mayweather Jr. and then I would like to see Manny retire, and become President of the Philippines,” he told fighthype.com.

Going back to things on hand, the matchmaking genius said Pacquiao stands to earn a lot, even more than what he earned against Oscar dela Hoya, for facing Hatton.

“There’s a good chance that Manny will earn more in this fight,” said Arum of Pacquiao, who got no less than $10 million despite the smaller 32 percent take against Dela Hoya’s 68 percent.

Arum said there’d be no such disparity in the Pacquiao-Hatton pie.

“Manny may get more but not much, much more because Ricky Hatton brings more to the table than anybody else Manny could fight at the moment,” he said.

“But we are not getting the smaller share if you know what I mean. A tremendous percentage of the money will come from England,” he added in recognizing Hatton’s pay-per-view draw back home. - By Abac Cordero (Philstar News Service, www.philstar.com)