‘Pacquiao a great ambassador for basketball’

PBA Media Bureau head Willie Marcial said his office has been receiving calls and e-mails trying to confirm the veracity of a report that came out recently announcing that “People’s Champ” Manny Pacquiao will suit up for Columbia Autocar Corporation (Kia), one of the three new teams accepted by the league for the incoming season.

The PBA has no answer for the curious.

“We cannot make a confirmation or issue a denial at this point since none of the two parties involved has informed us of this matter,” said Marcial.

But the idea of having global boxing star Pacquiao seems to be both a welcome and titillating idea to him and PBA commissioner Chito Salud.

“I have not heard anything official about this from Kia or Manny, so I do not have a direct comment on it. I am happy to note though, Manny’s undiminished love for the sport of basketball, given all his successes in other fields. He is a great ambassador for any sport, including basketball,” Salud  said.

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Boxing expert Ed Tolentino, a lawyer, is frequently being asked by boxing fans these days if recently re-crowned WBO welterweight champion Manny Pacquiao is back to his old form, after convincingly beating Timothy Bradley by unanimous decision.

Tolentino minces no words when he answers this frequently asked question.

“The Pacman can never go back to his original form,” he says. “Simply put, the Pacman of 10 years ago is 10 years younger. He can only retrieve whatever he can from his vintage form and add it to his present style, which borders on the technical side of the game.”

Ed reminds us that the 8-division world champion reached a peak “never scaled by other boxers of today’s generation. So even if he slips, he is still at least a notch better than today’s crop of boxers.”

And even if it would be impossible for the cells in his body to revert to their original form, Ed said this does not mean that he can no longer continue winning.

“The key for him to keep winning is to no longer use brute force but to improvise,” he said.

Manny said he still has a couple of good years left in him, not to mention a  couple of unfinished business in his career. He has no plans to retire as yet.

Ed said he only sees two fights that matter at this point—the fifth and last against Juan Manuel Marquez and the much awaited “fight of the century”  against Floyd Mayweather Jr.

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HOOPVINE:

If Kia is thinking of signing up Pacquiao to play for its PBA team, Blackwater Sports’ Dioceldo  Sy, on the other hand, is toying with the idea of reactivating PBA legends who can still  play, among them Kenneth Duremdes and Bong Alvarez…

Nonito Donaire Jr. goes for his fourth division world title this coming May 31 when he goes up against Simpiwe Vetyeka, IBO/WBA super featherweight champion at Venetian Resort in Macau…

Like Pacquiao’s predicament in his last fight against Bradley, this is a must-win bout for Nonito who is back in partnership with his trainer-father Nonito Sr.

Otherwise, he will have to reevaluate his boxing career.