Calling all muggers: Manny Pacquiao invading Central Park

NEW YORK—I just hope the little guy doesn’t run over Madonna or one of those other latte sipping celebrities.

Me, I can handle myself. My White Gorilla speed and girth will hold me in good stead when Manny Pacquiao invades my exercise course.

That little guy you might see early Thursday morning whipping his around the 6.2 long loop of Manhattan’s Central Park, that little guy who looks like Pacquiao…well, it is Da Pacman in the flesh.

I would think Manny would opt for the more manly long loop than the 2.3 mile reservoir run where Jackie Kennedy used to jog and where Madonna and other big stars often do with bodyguards in tow.

Too bad it isn’t the bad, old days of epic crime here so that Pacquiao could terrorize some would be muggers like Charles Bronson did in “Death Wish” (1974).

That would be like free sparring for Pacquiao.

But I digress.

Promoter Bob Arum had just wound up a brief chat in Pacquiao’s midtown hotel suite when I spoke to him Wednesday evening.

“Everything is good, everything is fine. I just left Manny and he had some plates of food. He’s waiting for (Coach Freddie) Roach who is flying in from California. Freddie should be here shortly and I know he and Manny will talk things over,” Arum said.

Puerto Rican slugger Miguel Cotto. Pacman’s Nov. 14 opponent in Las Vegas was ensconced in a different midtown hotel.

The Cotto-Pacquiao Press Tour kicks off (hey, come the New York Football Giants used to play in the old Yankee Stadium) in the Bronx Thursday at noon with a public invited press conference.

Doors to the new Yankee Stadium will open at 11 am and, as it is an off day for the pinstripers, Arum is hoping that superstar and Captain Derek Jeter and others will turn out to see the fighters.

The presser, which will be followed by stops in Puerto Rico, San Francisco, Los Angeles and (for Manny only) San Diego, will take place “rain or shine” but Arum’s not worried about the weather.

“I hear the rain forecast is for later in the day,” Arum said.

Arum said Megamanny reiterated that he will begin training immediately after the media junket in Baguio. Pacman will stay there for one month and then put in three weeks at Roach’s Wild Card Gym in Hollywood, moving on to Vegas for fight week.

I mentioned that I heard former champion Jose Luis Castillo would be going to the leafy climes and strawberry fields forever of Baguio as a sparring partner.

“That’s fine as long as Jose Luis doesn’t have to weigh in,” Arum cracked, referring to the Mexican’s notorious weigh in mishaps.

I had to take a jab at Arum having columnist status at my old employer, The Las Vegas Sun. So I asked if he would sit with me and the other peons in the press section or remain on the prestigious dais.

Arum said he will do both.

“When I’m on the dais, I will do the promoting and then I will come into the press section to do my writing,” Arum said.

Doubling up my jab I asked if ace publicist Lee Samuels scribbles his column.

Columnist Bob got a bit testy.

“No, I write it myself and they put it on the website. They liked my first column so much they also ran it in the newspaper.”

Will Arum expand his journalistic commentary to other boxing news and even to, let’s say, the raging health care controversy that President Obama was discussing Wednesday night?

“No, I’ll write about other boxing topics, other people’s promotions also. I can write about politics. When I write about (Nevada Sen) Harry Reid, I will mention how he was a boxer. As long as I can tie my subject into boxing, I’m good.”

Normally, this Red Sox rooter avoids Yankee Stadium. I hope you Paclanders appreciate how I will cross enemy lines to cover this event.

Source: http://www.examiner.com/x-5699-NY-Boxing-Examiner~y2009m9d9-Calling-all-muggers-Manny-Pacquiao-invading-Central-Park