By JOSEPH G. LARIOSA

(© 2009 Journal Group Link International)

C HICAGO, Illinois (JGLi) – Filipino boxing great Manny Pacquiao said Wednesday (March 3rd) that if he agreed to a blood test as close as to the fight time, it was going to work in favor of Floyd Mayweather, Jr. “because he is bigger than me.”

Pacquiao told popular TV talk show host Jimmy Kimmel in the American late-night talk show, “Jimmy Kimmel Live!,” that he would only agree to a blood test if the test is done much earlier than the schedule fight so it will level the playing field between them.

Pacquiao's Press Day

Pacquiao said he agreed that blood be drawn from him 24 days before the fight and a day after the fight but Mayweather balked at his suggestion.

He felt Mayweather was not ready to fight him “that’s why he was imposing conditions on me. The job of a fighter is to train hard for the fight, not to change the rules of the fight.”

When pressed if he is ready to fight Mayweather, Pacquiao quipped, “I am ready to fight anybody.”

He said he already saw Mayweather fight Miguel Cotto in New York.

Had the Pacquiao and Mayweather agreed to a fight, they would have been facing each other on March 13 at the Cowboy Stadium in Arlington, Texas.

They are now taking on separate opponents.

Pacquiao is staking his World Boxing Organization (WBO) welterweight title against Joshua Clottey on March 13 at the Cowboy Stadium while Mayweather is facing ‘Sugar’ Shane Mosley at MGM Grand in Las Vegas, Nevada, on May 1st.

It was reported that Mayweather and Mosley have agreed to an Olympic-style pre-fight blood test that scrapped the Pacquiao-Mayweather mega bout.

Regarding his upcoming fight with Clottey, he told Kimmel that he is training hard for it.

“Clottey is bigger and a former world champion and I never underestimate my opponent,” he said.

Wearing a red jacket emblazoned with a Philippine flag, Pacquiao told Kimmel that he will kick off his campaign for Congress right after his fight with Clottey. 

Kimmel also plugged a trailer of Manny’s movie, “Wapakman.”

Kimmel suggested that because Manny has the “most beautiful voice in boxing,” he should join “American Idol” and “beat the crap” of the judges if they don’t like him, prompting Pacquiao and the audience to explode into laughter.

In his encore in the ABC program broadcast 12 midnight Central time in Chicago, Pacquiao departed with his interpretation of George Benson’s “Nothing Gonna Change My Love For You.”

In his maiden appearance in the same program before his fight with Cotto last November, Manny crooned Dan Hill’s ‘Sometimes When We Touch,” which drew hearty applause from studio audience. (lariosa_jos@sbcglobal.net)

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