Photos: MP Promotions / Wendell Alinea
With the arrival of strength and conditioning coach Justine Fortune Friday, Manny Pacquiao’s training shifted to higher gear as he prepares for the all-important fight of his life opposite WBA champion Lucas Matthysse on July 15. Pacquiao, also the promoter of the mega-fight, dispelled rumors that there might even be a possibility of a postponement of this battle which he is treating with utmost concern and pride.
“We are shifting our training to higher gear now with less than two months before the fight,” said Pacquiao, who like Matthysse, is deep in training for their monumental clash at the posh Axiata Arena in Kuala Lumpur.
Dubbed as “Fight of Champions,” the Pacquiao Vs Matthysse clash hopes to equal, if not surpass the “Fight of a Lifetime” duel between Mumammad Ali and Joe Bugner in Malaysia in 1975.
“That is malicious and untrue,” said Pacquiao, referring to published reports that his inaugural promotional show under his MP Promotions banner will be postponed. Calling the persons involved as “saboteurs,” Pacquiao, the fighter, said he is very serious about winning this fight as he knows that Matthysse is also hoping to retire him from boxing.
“Ironically, I would like to thank these rumor-mongers for the extra publicity that they are contributing to make this fight such a huge success. I am turning this negative news into something good because no news is actually bad news,” added Pacquiao.
Additionally, Matthysse’s Arano Box organization and Golden Boy Promotions have concurred with Pacquiao.
“Given the wrong versions of the postponement of Pacquiao-Matthysse, such as the news that we retweeted, Arano Box clarifies that the fight has no problem and the date remains unchanged,” said Matthysse’s manager Mario Arano on Tweeter, after Argentine TV network TyC Sports reported that the fight was headed towards postponement. The news was picked up by several other websites who are keenly keeping tabs of everything that is related to the fight.
TyC Sports, the Spanish channel of Argentina, claimed that there were disagreements between the promoters and the Kuala Lumpur organization, a fact that doesn’t exist, according to Pacquiao.
Likewise, Havas Sports & Entertainment, a division of Havas Media Asia Pacific, has been appointed as the International Media Rights and Commercial Partner by fight promoters MP Promotions and Events for the highly anticipated ‘Fight.’
The deal covers worldwide distribution across the Asia Pacific, Europe, Latin America and Africa and includes media rights across all platforms and devices including television, broadband, mobile, radio and in-flight rights.
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Photo caption:
Arnold Vegafria, Sales and Marketing head of MP Promotions and Events
/ MPKL and Melvin Lim, CEO of Havas Sports and Entertainment, sign the
agreement Friday in Malaysia allowing Havas to distribute the “Fight
of Champions” bout on July 15 at the Axiata Arena in Kuala Lumpur.
This contract signing dispels rumors circulated by certain individuals
that the fight might get postponed with less than two months left.