If Manny Pacquiao is indeed avoiding a showdown with newly crowned WBO welterweight champion Terence Crawford, the Filipino icon is well within his rights to do so.

Former WBO minimumweight, WBO lightflyweight and IBF flyweight champion Donnie Nietes became only the third Filipino ever after Manny Pacquiao and Nonito Donaire, Jr. to make it to the top 10 Ring Magazine pound-for-pound honor roll as he was ranked No. 9 in the latest ratings.

Lucas Matthysse’s trainer had seen enough of Manny Pacquiao he knows what to expect in the upcoming WBA welterweight title bout in Kuala Lumpur.

With his familiar one-liners, Manny Pacquiao pointed out that all’s well in his preparations for the July 15 clash with Lucas Matthysse in Kuala Lumpur.

Here’s another accolade for Sen. Manny Pacquiao. For the third straight year, ESPN Magazine came up with a list of the world’s 100 most famous athletes and Pacquiao was ranked No. 63, overshadowing the likes of football’s Javier Hernandez of Mexico, Thomas Muller of Germany, Kylian Mbappe of France and Alvaro Morata of Spain, F1 superstar Lewis Hamilton of England, the NBA’s Blake Griffin and Isaiah Thomas, the NFL’s J. J. Watt and Russell Wilson, boxer Wladimir Klistchko, cricket’s Ravichandran Ashwin of India, tennis’ Caroline Wozniacki of Denmark, Stan Wawrinka of Switzerland, Simona Halep of Romania and Sania Mirza of India, golfers Justin Rose of England, Sergio Garcia of Spain, Rickie Fowler of the US and Michelle Wie of the US, figure skating’s Yuzuru Hanyu of Japan, table tennis’ Zhang Jike and Ma Long of China and swimmers Ning Zetao and Fu Yuanhui of China.