PACQUIAO OVERWHELMS MAYWEATHER IN BOXING WRITERS VOTE FOR ‘FIGHTER OF THE DECADE’

By Ronnie Nathanielsz
PhilBoxing.com
Tue, 02 Feb 2010

The president of the Boxing Writers Jack Hirsh says pound-for-pound king Manny Pacquiao won the “Fighter of the Decade” award by a huge margin.

Although stating he would “rather not give a vote breakdown” of how the members balloting for “Fighter of the Decade” turned out, Hirsch told us “the margin of Pacquiao’s victories were enormous” although he conceded a handful of members voted for someone else.

The respected president of the BWAA said “the decisiveness of Pacquiao’s victory for ‘Fighter of the Decade’ surprised me.”

He said Pacquiao “got more than twice as many votes as the second place finisher, Floyd Mayweather Jr.”

Hirsch said the BWAA was negotiating with Madison Square Garden to have the dinner at the famed venue on June 11 and said he was hoping they could work something out but that “right now it's no better than 50-50.”

He indicated that after last year’s awards dinner Madison Square Garden had reached out to the association asking to host this year’s dinner and Hirsch said he was hoping MSG would give them “a good enough deal to make this a reality.”

He said Top Rank promoter Bob Arum had already guaranteed Pacquiao’s attendance at the awards event.

At the same time Hirsch said he hopes to “have a major international personality to present Pacquiao with the “Fighter of the Decade” award.

Aside from Floyd Mayweather Jr whom he beat overwhelmingly in the boxing writers association voting by its members, Pacquiao also bested such greats as Bernard Hopkins, Joe Calzaghe, Shane Mosley, Juan Manuel Marquez and Marco Antonio Barrera.

Pacquiao was clearly overjoyed and humbled by the honors bestowed upon him and thanked the members of the BWAA for their support and respect for his achievements the past decade where he emerged as the most exciting boxer in the world today and a genuine box office hit.

The awards notwithstanding Pacquiao was in the Wild Card Gym of celebrated trainer Freddie Roach who was named “Trainer of the Year” for the fourth time and cemented his position, like Pacquiao, of being regarded as one of the greatest of all-time.

Pacquiao’s adviser Michael Koncz said Pacquiao had another fine day at the gym, going through his regular routine and looking better than ever in preparation for his March 13 showdown with Joshua Clottey at the Dallas Cowboys state-of-the-art $1.2 billion stadium.

Source: PhilBoxing.com