Hatton wants to do commercials with Pacman

MANILA, Philippines - Whatever happens in May, whether he scores a knockout or gets knocked out trying, Ricky Hatton said he wants to visit Manny Pacquiao in the Philippines.

The pride of Manchester is open to doing a commercial with the Filipino superstar.

It’s been a tradition of sort for Pacquiao’s most recent opponents to fly to the Philippines, including Erik Morales, who did a few commercials with San Miguel Beer, Juan Manuel Marquez and David Diaz.

Edwin Valero, the Venezuelan knockout specialist who’s aching to face Pacquiao, was also in the Philippines last December during the boxer’s 30th birthday bash.

Hatton, who loves beer as much as he loves boxing, wants to do the same.

Interviewed by ABS-CBN’s Danny Buenafe in Manchester the other day, Hatton said he was amazed how Pinoy boxing fans “glorified” Pacquiao during his recent visit to the UK.

“The people are wonderful – very, very nice people,” said Hatton, who is eyeing a big win over the Pinoy pound-for-pound champion when they meet on May 2 at the MGM Grand.

Hatton said he sees Pacquiao, scheduled to begin sparring, going down between the sixth and 10th rounds.

“When we had a press conference in London and Manchester lots of Filipino people turned up and they were very nice, very, very polite, very proud of their fighter,” Hatton said.

“Yeah, of course, I mean I’ve heard good things about the Filipino people. The brief encounter I’ve had with them is everything that people have said is true, they’re very nice people.”

He went as far as greeting the Filipinos in their own dialect, “Ma-bu-hay ka-pamilya. Maraming salamat!”

But Hatton said he’s ready to bring Pacquiao down.

“We’re both very aggressive fighters. I’ll have to go for the knockout. I mean, you can never say never. I mean, the main thing is, I’m sure Manny would say the same,” he told ABS-CBN.   – Abac Cordero