Pacman Gives Up Crown

ABAC CORDERO
PhilStar News Service

LOS ANGELES - Manny Pacquiao is letting go of the lightweight crown he won over David Diaz last June.

The Filipino superstar, all set to face the great Oscar dela Hoya at 147 pounds, told Filipino scribes Wednesday he'd never fight again in the 135-pound division.

"Actually I think I'd never go back down to 135," said Pacquiao when asked about the possibility of him trying to defend the WBC lightweight crown.

"It's too difficult for me to get to 135 pounds now. I walk around at 155 when there's no fight, and 135 is too much a distance for me," he said.

Pacquiao said whatever happens in his "Dream Match" with Dela Hoya, he'd rather stay at 140 or 147 pounds where he feels a lot more comfortable now.

"There are great fighters at 140 and Ricky Hatton is just one of them," he said, as he enjoyed a plateful of chicken lollipops, fried salmon and crab rice.

Pacquiao saying he's giving up the lightweight crown also means that he no longer has to pay the WBC an extra $100,000 as sanction fee for the Dela Hoya fight.

A couple of weeks ago, the WBC said Pacquiao owed the body $30,000 in sanction fees for a previous fight and that he needed to pay the extra $100,000 for Dela Hoya bout.

Pacquiao was given 15 days to pay up or he gets stripped of the 135-pound title. He did pay the $30,000 but not the bigger amount.

He no longer had plans of defending the crown, actually the fourth world title the Filipino southpaw had won next to the flyweight, super-bantam and super-featherweight.

Pacquiao is the only Asian boxer to have won four world titles in different weight classes, and also the only fighter from the Philippines to be crowned lightweight champion. (Read more...)

Jackson: Because of Crack

BANG
MSN News
Published as "Samuel L. Jackson's Hollywood Break"

Samuel L. Jackson's drug habit helped him break into Hollywood.

The actor revealed his battle with illegal substances in the 80s helped him play a convincing crack cocaine addict in 1991's 'Jungle Fever'.

He said: 'I got my big break when I had smoked enough crack to do all the research. And then I won the New York Film Critics' Film Award and suddenly Hollywood was going, 'Who is that?' And I got invited to lunch.'
Jackson, who had quit drugs by the time he landed the role as Gator in the movie, claims he was so believable producers asked to meet with him to ensure he wasn't still an addict.

The 59-year-old star has also spoken about the racism which is still rife in America, saying police have stopped him and pulled out their guns because of the expensive car he is driving.

Jackson added to Britain's Times 2: 'I have been pulled over legitimately and I have been pulled over because I was black and in the wrong place and my car was too nice.

'Cops are looking at me and saying, 'You look familiar.' And you just have to say, 'oh, OK'. Because you don't know if he is talking about a wanted poster that he saw today or he actually saw a movie of mine. I have had guns pulled on me, of course I have.'

Jackson can next be seen in thriller 'Lakeview Terrace', in which he plays a police officer who terrorises an interracial couple who have moved in next door to him.

Miguel Syjuco's Ilustrado Wints the 2008 Man Asian Literary Asian Literature Prize

The Man Asian Literary Prize 2008

13 November 2008

Hong Kong--A panel of three internationally acclaimed authors and experienced literary judges named Filipino author Miguel Syjuco winner of the 2008 Man Asian Literary Prize for his novel Ilustrado, a fictional account of a young Filipino caught within a notorious scandal spanning over the Philippine history.

The panel of judges for the 2008 prize praised Ilustrado: "The shortlist for the Man Asian prize testifies to the great vitality of the novel in Asian societies undergoing hectic and unexpected transformations. In the end, we had to choose; and Ilustrado seems to us to possess formal ambition, linguistic inventiveness and sociopolitical insight in the most satisfying measure. Brilliantly conceived, and stylishly executed, it covers a large and tumultuous historical period with seemingly effortless skill. It is also ceaselessly entertaining, frequently raunchy, and effervescent with humour."

The prize winner was announced at a celebratory dinner at The Peninsula Hong Kong. Miguel Syjuco was awarded USD 10,000. Ilustrado was selected from shortlist of five:
Kavery Nambisan, The Story that Must Not be Told

Siddharth Dhanvant Shanghvi, The Lost Flamingoes of Bombay

Miguel Syjuco, Ilustrado

Yu Hua, Brothers

Alfred A. Yuson, The Music Child

For complete details, please see the press release.

Darchinyan: The Warrior Who Unifies 115-lbs

PAUL UPHAM

SecondsOut.com

"The Critics Only Remembered 20 Seconds of Darchinyan's Career"

Going into last Saturday’s junior bantamweight world title unification match between Cristian Mijares and Vic Darchinyan in Carson, California on Showtime, many boxing writers had the Mexican a huge favourite to win. Some even suggested that Darchinyan would not even win a round. A reckless statement considering his past achievements, as if Darchinyan landing a punch on Mijares would be like trying to nail jelly to a wall.

In a pre-fight poll of world boxing writers conducted by Showtime, of the thirty-two surveyed, only six had selected Darchinyan to win. At SecondsOut.com the Mijares selection was even more dominate, fourteen of fifteen picking him to win.It was as if the other 29 fights of his career had meant nothing. All Darchinyan’s critics could remember were the 10 seconds when he was knocked out by Nonito Donaire in five rounds in July 2007, his only career defeat.

They had chosen to forget his dominating wins over Dimitri Kirilov, Glenn Donaire, Luis Maldonado (who drew with Mijares), Irene Pacheco and Alejandro Montiel. Darchinyan came out of the shadows to win three world titles at 115lbs. (Read more...)