Top Rank promoter Bob Arum has revealed that after a two-hour conference call on marketing the May 2 showdown between Filipino boxing hero Manny Pacquiao and Britain’s IBO light welterweight champion Ricky “The Hitman” Hatton, a title for the fight was decided on.
Arum, in a conversation with BoxingScene.com, insidesports.ph, Standard Today and Viva Sports said the name is a takeoff on Rudyard Kipling’s poem titled “The Ballad of East and West” and they had decided on the title “The Battle of East and West.”
Arum recited what he called “that beautiful couplet” – “When two strong men stand face to face, tho’ they come from the ends of the earth” which he said they would put on all the posters and other promotional material for the massive showdown.
Arum was also pleased at the unsolicited buildup given the fight by Eddie Hearn, a top executive of Matchroom Sport which is owned by his father Barry Hearn, who Arum described as “a very good friend.”
Hearn who is visiting Manila to compete in a poker tournament formally announced the staging of the PartyPoker.com World Cup of Pool from September 1-6 in Manila with 31 countries competing said “I know Ricky Hatton very well. I am a great admirer of Manny Pacquiao and I think that Manny will win the fight. He will be too strong.”
Hearn said “no matter how much money they have, which is a lot, they will never give up and they both have huge hearts. When you get two guys like that you’ll have to drag one of them out of the ring and I think Hatton will be the one to be dragged out of the ring with Pacquiao stopping him in the late rounds – 9, 10, 11.”
The Matchroom director said Hatton is not like Oscar De La Hoya who Pacquiao hammered into submission in eight rounds last December 6 . While conceding that Hatton was “not at the level of De La Hoya who is at the end of his career. Ricky has a lot left in his tank and he’s a warrior. And he’ll give it everything. I hope that Manny Pacquiao can take a punch because he will get hit in this fight.”
Source: boxingscene.com
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