Pacquiao machine gears up again

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Manny Pacquiao and Shane Mosley will begin to beat the drum Thursday for their welterweight fight.

The press tour for the May 7 bout kicks off in Los Angeles.

Pacquiao, 32, will be fighting in Las Vegas for the first time since destroying Miguel Cotto in late 2009, after his two-fight turn last year at Cowboys Stadium in Arlington, Texas.

None too soon for the Nevada tourism industry as the action at the tables is reportedly greater for bouts involving Pacquiao than any other fighter.

A lot of fight pundits derided this matchup when it was first posited late last year, but it now comes at least with some interesting angles attached which have to do with the business of boxing.

About 90 per cent of Pacquiao's bouts in the last eight years have been broadcast on HBO, but the network was evidently lukewarm on the bout given Mosley's performances against Floyd Mayweather and Sergio Mora.

Pacquiao promoter Bob Arum turned to Showtime Network, which is a division of the CBS Corporation.

What interested him most was the synergy between CBS and Showtime. He secured a deal to ensure that the big network will promote the pay-per-view bout, including some episodes of a preview series.

It remains to be seen whether it will arouse casual fans or those unaware of one of the biggest athletes in the world and boxing's most exciting fighter.

Arum wasn't able to secure a replay of the bout on CBS, often a weekly home to boxing until the mid-1990s.

Other notes

It seems fight fans will annoyingly have to do some juggling and taping once again on May 21, according to initial reports.

That is the date HBO is looking at for the light heavyweight rematch between Laval's Jean Pascal and Bernard Hopkins, according to Dan Rafael of ESPN.

That same date sees Carl Froch and Glen Johnson square off in Showtime's super middleweight tournament.

Pascal-Hopkins was a better than expected fight and will likely be held in Canada, but I know if forced to choose just one, it'd be Froch-Johnson, which has Fight of the Year potential.

ESPN2's Friday Night Fights will broadcast Friday from Montreal's Bell Centre as local product Jo Jo Dan - like Lucian Bute and Leonard Dorin, born in Romania - faces grizzled veteran Stevie Forbes in a welterweight bout.

Laval welterweight Anton Decarie, trying to get back in the hunt after his first career loss last year, takes on capable Shamone Alvarez.

(Photo of Manny Pacquiao courtesy Nick Laham/Getty Images)  

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