Asia Society bestows top award to Pacquiao in NY

AP

Boxing icon Manny Pacquiao will be the top award recipient during the Asia Society Game Changer Awards Dinner and Celebration at the United Nations headquarters in New York on Oct. 13.

The eight-division world champion will be honored as the 2015 Asia Game Changer of the Year by the global nonprofit organization, founded in 1956 by John Rockefeller III, that aims to forge closer ties between Asia and the West.

Pacquiao, Sarangani province’s lone representative in Congress, was chosen for making a transformative difference for the future and for improving lives, according to Asia Society president Josette Sheeran.

Chinese billionaire Jack Ma, founder of e-commerce giant Alibaba Group, preceded Pacquiao as last year’s top awardee.

Pacquiao, who underwent MRI (magnetic resonance imaging) on his right shoulder at Cardinal Santos Medical Center in Greenhills, San Juan, last Monday, will leave for New York on Oct. 12.

Promoter Bob Arum required the MRI as a prerequisite for Pacquiao’s next fight. It will determine whether the rotator cuff tear he sustained in a losing effort against Floyd Mayweather Jr. on May 2 has healed.

The MRI results, which turned out to be positive, will be relayed to Arum, who is talking with the handlers of Briton Amir Khan for Pacquiao’s comeback fight, either late February or early April next year at MGM Grand in Las Vegas.