MANILA -- For IBF junior flyweight champion Brian Viloria, there would be only one Manny Pacquiao.
“To be honest, the way I see it… there’s nobody in this history that’s going to be the next Manny Pacquiao. Manny’s one in a million,” said Viloria, who had just defended his title from Mexico’s Jesus Iribe on Aug. 29.
He said Pacquiao is a phenomenon very much similar to boxing greats Muhammad Ali and Mike Tyson.
“Manny Pacquiao’s at the same category… The way that he’s garnered the imaginations of the people worldwide not just in the Philippines, that’s enormous… for us, that’s a high standard to reach,” said Viloria.
This is why the Filipino-American boxer thinks it is “unfair” to compare up-and-coming boxers to Pacquiao.
“All that we could do is to work hard and what we’re able to do and to set our own standards on simply to reach that. I’m not going to be the next Manny Pacquiao,” he said.
Pacquiao has won several world titles, which include the WBC lightweight, WBC super featherweight, IBF super bantamweight, and WBC flyweight crowns.
He is also the reigning IBO and Ring Magazine junior welterweight champion and is rated by the Ring Magazine as the top pound-for-pound boxer in the world.
“Maybe down the line we could make our own names and there will be guys who will want to be like us,” said Viloria. “Nobody can be the next Michael Jordan but it’s really nice to be Kobe Bryant or LeBron James.”
Pacquiao’s next fight will be against WBO welterweight champion Miguel Cotto of Puerto Rico on November 14.
Pacman leaving for US
Pacquiao, meanwhile, leaves for the US on Wednesday for a five-city publicity tour for his showdown against Cotto at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas.
The promo tour will start Sept. 10 with a press conference at the Yankee Stadium in New York. It will be open to the public.
The entourage, which includes Team Pacman official Mike Koncz, lawyer Franklin Gacal and probably trainer Buboy Fernandez, will proceed to Puerto Rico, then to San Francisco, Los Angeles before capping it in San Diego.
“After this tour, we’ll start training for eight weeks,” said Pacquiao in Filipino. “We will study Cotto’s style and technique.”
Cotto, however, will not be around in the final stop of the tour in San Diego since he will go straight to his training camp in Tampa, Florida.
The 30-year-old world pound-for-pound king, on the other hand, is expected to start training in Baguio upon his return from the US with Fernandez assuring the facilities in the City of Pines are suited for Pacquiao’s training camp. With a report from the Philippine Star
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