EIGHT-DIVISION world champion Manny Pacquiao was attacked by a man after he had lunch at a Japanese restaurant near the Wild Card Gym in Los Angeles and was walking to his car at the parking lot.
As a result, security will be tight from now on as Pacquiao prepares to face Timothy “Desert Storm” Bradley in a trilogy, which promoter Bob Arum expects to be an exciting bout with a possible knockout.
Pacquiao was greeting fans and well-wishers before heading for the parking lot where his Ferrari was stationed when a man, described as decently dressed Caucasian-looking man, around 35 to 40 years of age, lunged at the boxer and tried to throw a punch while shouting invectives over his comments on gay marriages last February, which resulted in several protests.
Reports from LA, said Edward Lura, Pacquiao’s longtime friend, was able to ward off the Caucasian-looking attacker, while other members of Pacquiao’s security detail joined the fray and subdued the man, who continued screaming at Pacquiao in reference to the LGBT controversy he sparked with his comments about same-sex marriage.
During the entire episode, Pacquiao remained calm and composed and told his security not to hurt the man.
“Let him go. Don’t hurt him,” Pacquiao was quoted as saying.
He even joked about the fact that the attacker was not an enemy but a fan.
On the more serious side, Top Rank promoter Bob Arum believes that the trilogy with Bradley will be the most exciting, with the possibility of the fight ending in a knockout, either way.
“This is a very interesting promotion as far as I’m concerned. A lot of people are concentrating on the new and improved Tim Bradley. Manny Pacquiao with his right arm now totally repaired—he has had that torn rotator cuff since before the De La Hoya fight. Obviously now that it’s repaired, it is at full strength. Freddie will tell you that Manny is hitting harder with the right hand—even harder than with the left hand, so he is now going to be a real two-handed fighter which is very interesting. I think Tim Bradley’s big advantage is that he is going in with a game plan. I don’t think he had much of a game plan in the first two fights but certainly Teddy has given him one,” said Arum.
