Manny Pacquiao will enter the ring for boxing’s “fight of the century” with an entire country in his corner as the Philippines grinds to a halt to dementedly cheer on its favourite son against Floyd Mayweather, AFP reports.
Streets will be empty on fight day – Sunday morning local time – as the impoverished nation of 100 million cheers its “National Fist” in huge open-air screenings, cinemas, bars and homes.
Pacquiao’s image is ubiquitous, emblazoned across giant billboards lining major highways and on shirts, dolls and stamps in stores everywhere.
“The world will stop on Sunday. Everybody is excited,” 32-year-old Manila taxi driver Glenn Yago said on Friday.
“There will be mayhem in the streets after the fight,” he said, looking forward to a bumper crop of fares once the bout is over.
The rags-to-riches story of Pacquiao, along with his famously humble manner, has made him a towering national hero.
For many of his countrymen the 36-year-old, winner of an unprecedented eight world championships in different weight divisions, symbolises their hope of escaping the grinding poverty that afflicts one in four Filipinos.
Hundreds of cinema screens will show the fight from Las Vegas, displacing the Hollywood smash “Avengers: Age of Ultron”, according to screening schedules.
The country’s three biggest networks said they would air it on free television. Giant screens will be set up in covered courts, village halls and military and police camps.
On Palawan Island, the electricity utility has even urged its customers to turn off their refrigerators to avoid power shortages that could black out TV sets.
In the southern area of Santa Catalina, still reeling from a rebel siege two years ago, hundreds will cram into several houses with pay-per-view access to the fight, said village leader Jimmy Villaflores.
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