Filipino Librarian: Manny "Pac Man" Pacquiao vs Oscar "Chololo" Larios

On Sunday, 2 July 2006, what happened on 22 January 2006—when Manny Pacquiao beat Erik Morales—will happen again. Nope, I'm not saying that Pacquiao will beat Oscar Larios (but I hope he does!). As I wrote about the Pacquiao-Morales fight, "Filipinos in the Philippines—not to mention all over the world—will be watching." Traffic in the country will stop, the crime rate will go down to zero for a few hours, and even those who don't like boxing will know that the fight is going on.

But this fight will be different. The last fight was in Las Vegas, Nevada. This one will be in Pacquiao's hometown, specifically Araneta Coliseum, where the Ali-Frazier "Thrilla in Manila" was fought almost 31 years ago. Try to imagine what will happen if Germany makes it to the World Cup finals while it's being held there. True, this boxing match is not quite on that level, but that may as well be the case when it comes to Filipinos who need a hero amid the endless politicking in our country.

If you're a Filipino or just interested in the fight, check out the following sites:

Pacquiao vs Larios: Mano a Mano

This is the official website. Read their bios and compare their stats. And since this is basically a Filipino website for Filipinos, click on "Multimedia" if you want to download wallpapers for your cellular phone =)

ABS-CBNnow!

If you're not in the Philippines or won't have a TV at fight time, but you do have a computer with broadband access, subscribe to the video service so you can watch the fight live ($30). Or call up DirecTV and watch it as a pay-per-view event ($39.95).

YouTube

If you're wondering who Larios is, watch him talk about himself, get interviewed in Japanese (!) about his fight with Pacquiao, and see him lose to Israel Vasquez. And then there's the video of Morales losing to Pacquiao, and the full trailer of Pacquiao, the movie that opened in Manila a few days ago.

News and Blogs

If you really can't watch the fight on TV or online, news updates will be available on Google News, Yahoo! News, and Topix.net. Or you can check out what bloggers are saying on Technorati and Google Blog Search.

HBO