WOW Pinoy: Pacquiao on eyes in Heavier Division

Pacquiao on eyes in Heavier Division

Written by Ms. Confuse on Monday, June 16, 2008

Once he has completely "annhilated" his latest Mexican opponent, Filipino world champion Manny Pacquiao is setting his sights on a match with Ricky "Hitman" Hatton of England

Hatton is ranked by Ring Magazine, the bible of boxing, as the junior welerweight (140lbs.) champion, while Pacquiao is the super featherweight (130lbs.) crown holder. But befor the popular British champion could meet Pacquiao, he must still wait for the outcome of the June 28 championship fight of the Filipino ring icon against Mexican David Diaz in Las Vegas. Installed as the favorite to win the fight, Pacquiao takes on Diaz for the WBC lightweight championship fight in an attempt to add another jewel to his glistening crown.

Pacquiao has won world titles at flyweight, super-bantamweight and super-featherweight - while he controversially drew with Juan Manuel Marquez in their featherweight showdown despite knocking the Mexican down three time in the opening round. The Filipino now steps up to lightweight for his WBC showdown with Diaz on June 28 at the Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas. However 'Pacman' insists he wans to move up the weights again to 140lbs to take Hatton.

He told Ring Magazine: "After Diaz, I want to fight Ricky Hatton. That will be a good fight. I'm 150lbs right now. My sparring partners are always 140 to 150lbs. It's not problem for me. And I'm not getting any younger. So why not?"

The news about a possible match between Pacquiao and Hatton spread like wild fire in Britain and drew mixed reactions among British boxing fans, among them were: "...Pacman would hit Riicky too many times and the ref would end up stopping the bout...Pacman is too fast and too big puncher for our Ricky! The Hitman's blood would spoil it! it's a shame we not talking 5yrs. ago though - might be a different story! The result of this fight cannot be predicted until we see both Ricky and Pacquiao's next fight. We do not know whether pacman will smash Ricky because it will smash /ricky because it cannot yet be gauged whether his power will travel with him, he could not knock out Marquez after all and that was at super feather. Also, Pacquiao is a bit over rated and its not too good for the Hitman, they both have showed defensive flaws over the years and Pacquiao has seemed to lost his unpredictability and buzz saw figthing style over his last few fights, which made him so dangerous in the first place".