LOU DIBELLA COMPARES PACQUIAO TO ROBERTO DURAN
By Ronnie Nathanielsz
PhilBoxing.com
Mon, 22 Mar 2010
Duran.
Respected boxing promoter and television/film producer Lou DiBella has compared pound-for-pound king Manny Pacquiao with the great Roberto “Hands of Stone” Duran of Panama.
In a chat with broadcast journalist Hermie Rivera, manager of former two division world champion Luisito Espinosa as well as light welterweight champion Morris East and world title challenger Socrates Batoto among others, Di Bella said “The only comparison I would ever be able to make would be Roberto Duram.”
DiBella told Rivera “for a guy who’s got the ability to carry his raw power way past his weight class I think that’s what Manny has done. Its almost singular and unheard of.”
The boxing man who headed HBO Sports for some ten years and established the network’s name in boxing, pointed out that Pacquiao started as a flyweight and then “to dominate to as high as 147 pounds, I think he is a force of nature.”
A certain Hall-of-Famer like two other former world champions and Filipino greats flyweight champion Pancho Villa and Gabriel “Flash” Elorde who reigned as world junior lightweight champion for almost seven and a half years, Pacquiao on his arrival to a hero’s welcome Monday morning in Manila hinted at possible retirement.
Influential friends former governor Luis "Chavit" Singson and former Manila Mayor Lito Atienza who is making a bid to return as Mayor indicated that retirement is a real possibility should Pacquiao win in his bid for a congressional seat in the May 10 elections.
Asked about this aspect of Pacquiao’s career, DiBella told Rivera, “if he’d never have another fight he’ll be the greatest Filipino fighter in history, the Duran of the Philippines. He’ll be the greatest Asian fighter who has ever lived and really if he’ll never engage in another fight, he’ll be in the rarified air alongside of the Durans and the (Sugar Ray) Leonards” of boxing.
DiBella added that he thinks Pacquiao “has had a tremendous career.”
The family of Elorde headed by matriarch Laura Elorde and son Johnny and wife Liza will host the Gabriel “Flash” Elorde Annual Awards dinner at the Sofitel Plaza Hotel Harbour tent on Thursday at which Pacquiao will be guest of honor and speaker and crowned as the “Fighter of the Decade.”
Among the world champions DiBella handled in the past were Jermain Taylor and Bernard Hopkins. Also part of his DiBella Entertainment are WBO light welterweight champion Paul Malignaggi who battles WBA champion Amir Khan on May 15 at Madison Square Garden and WBC welterweight champion Andre Berto.
In 2006, DiBella made his acting debut playing himself as a boxing promoter in the celebrated movie Rocky Balboa which starred Sylvester Stallone and scenes of the packed arena during his Taylor vs. Hopkins II fight, play in the movie during Rocky's fight scene.
DiBella has expanded his boxing corporation by producing TV/film projects. In 2007, DiBella produced the documentary, "Magic Man," which depicted the life of Paulie Malignaggi and his rise in the world of boxing.
Click here to view a list of other articles written by Ronnie Nathanielsz.
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