LAS VEGAS – For sure, Fillipino boxing icon Manny Pacquiao was seething with cold fury within but came up with easy body language to say “I’m OK.”
It was at the tail end of another litany of verbal abuses thrown Pacman’s way by American Keith “One Time” Thurman.
The two are to clash in a unification bout tomorrow at the MGM Grand Hotel and were given the leeway to hype it up to boost ticket demands even if they bordered on personal affronts.
‘’His legacy ends where my legacy begins,” said Thurman.
He has waited all his life for this showdown which could serve as the defining fight of his career after racking a record embellished with perfect 29 wins.
And Thurman, 30, who is coming off a 22-month layoff due to surgery in both hands, has boldly predicted that he would rule the talent-laden welterweight class and secure his spot in history by beating the legend himself, using the Filipino eight-time division champ as his stepping stone to greatness.
It has all the trimmings of a blockbuster title match that could border to a “morality play.”
Thurman, a cocky, confident, cerebral champ vows to end Pacquiao’s illustrious career by unleashing a strong start to set a stoppage within the first six rounds.
“His time is over. This is my time,’’said Thurman, who made a last verbal jab at Pacman as he likened the Filipino’s arms to a T-Rex ,( a tyrannosaurus – a type of dinosaur) in the final media confab Wednesday.
Amid the unrelenting taunts from the American, Pacquiao put up a brave front and kept to himself although a member of Team Pacman confided he was unhappy with the way Thurman disparaged and belittled his person and his feats.
Behind the smile, there’s some anger raging to come out.
Ask trainer Freddie Roach.
In 2010 while working out for his junior middleweight defense against Pacman, Mexican Antonio Margarito and Brandon Rios released a video mocking Roach for his speech and tremors due to the effects of Parkinson’s disease.
Margarito and Rios later apologized to Roach and urged him to forget the entire incident.
But Manny Pacquiao did not, and gave Margarito a bloody, brutal beating he would never forget.