BobPac and Humberto Soto: - A Meeting at Old Town Los Angeles
By Ed de la Vega, DDS
PhilBoxing.com
Thu, 31 May 2007
BobPac (R) with Soto at today's presscon.
Los Angeles, CA -- It would not be too difficult to surmise why the media people at Bob Arum’s Top Rank Promotions picked old town Los Angeles as the site to hype the June 9th BobPac-Soto encounter. They obviously wanted to underscore the “Mexican connection” of their prot?g?, Humberto Soto and attract more Latinos to view the fight, live or on HBO PPV.
Thus, they picked a nice cozy restaurant called El Paseo Inn to hold the BobPac-Soto press conference. The place is located right smack in the middle of Old Town LA, north of the present downtown Los Angeles.
Old Town LA, better known to locals as “Olvera Street” has a Mexican theme. Being there feels like being in a typical Mexican pueblo, complete with a plaza, year-round festive atmosphere and packed with open air shops and nice eateries. On many instances, particularly on week-ends, mariachi music surrounds the area.
But, the ostensible emphasis on the “Mexican connection", did not seem to faze Bobby Pacquiao. “Wala yan sa akin”, (That does not mean anything to me) he said. “Kahit saan nila dalhin, okay lang sa akin”. (Its okay by me wherever they take it) he added.
The event was BobPac’s first formal meeting with Humberto Soto. And, judging from the atmosphere during the press conference, Soto better not look past BobPac and set his sights too early towards the other Pacquiao, Manny ”Pacman” Pacquiao. Besides, there are many others wanting a piece of the Pacman, so even if Soto beats Bobby, he still has to get on queue like everybody else.
“I respect him as a fighter and it’s nice to know that he respects me too. But I hope he really looks past me. Then he will find out why certain Mexican boxers bring the best in the Pacquiaos”, Bobby emphasized to this writer.
Bob Arum unfortunately missed the event. The plane he was in had engine trouble and sat at the Las Vegas airport tarmac for an hour without ventilation. Poor Bob was not able to take it and he deplaned and thus missed the presscon.
Bill Caplan and Fernando Beltran however took control and the presscon went on as scheduled. What was so good about it was the fact that the boxers who were there, BobPac, Humberto Soto and Julio Cesar Chavez, Jr were perfect gentlemen. There was no trash talk. Soto and BobPac showed lots of respect for each other.
Incidentally, Top Rank dubbed the fight card as “X-plosive”, an obvious anticipation of the “fireworks” expected to happen that night particularly on the four televised fights, Cotto-Judah; BobPac-Soto; Chavez-Wiley; and Thompson-Foreman.
Bobby Pacquiao is set to leave for New York on June 4th in preparation for his tiff with Soto at the famed Madison Square Garden (MSG) on Saturday, June 9th.
BobPac is very familiar with the MSG. It was there where he KO’d Kevin Kelly last June 10, 2006, a fight no one expected him to win let alone via a devastating knock-out punch in the mid-section of Kelly.
Many pundits in the sweet science are expecting the fight as a tune up for Soto and not too many seem to believe that Bobby Pacquiao can pull this one off. But then again, they all had that thought before BobPac fought Kelly and Famoso Hernandez.
They can all be wrong again!
There is a saying that goes: “it’s lovelier the second time around”. This fight, being Bobby’s second big one at the MSG may turn out that way too.
Let’s just wait and see.
Photos by Dr. Ed de la Vega:
From left: Soto, Julio Ceasar Chavez, Jr. and BobPac.
With Freddie Roach (R).
Old LA scene.
From left, seated: Winchell Campos, BobPac and Mercito
Gesta. Standing is ABS-CBN's Dyan Castillejo.
Click here to view a list of other articles written by Ed de la Vega, DDS.
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