Manny Pacquiao vs Adrien Broner: American promises to ‘beat up’ Pacman and start a Las Vegas ‘block party’

Adrien Broner has promised to “beat up” Manny Pacquiao when the pair meet in the early hours of Sunday morning in Las Vegas.

The brash American is challenging Pacquiao for the WBA welterweight world title in what will be the hall-of-fame Filipino’s 70th professional fight.

Pacquiao is considered a close favourite in the bout, but Broner, a four-weight world champion himself, insisted that he has set aside his issues over a lack of focus and is ready to turn Las Vegas into a “block party”.

“I’m not up here to talk a lot of trash,” Broner said. “I’ve put in the work. It’s fight time. After I win, everything is going to be different.

“People are talking a lot about Pacquiao fighting Floyd Mayweather again, but I’m pretty sure Floyd is retired. I feel like people are trying to throw me to the wolves and overlook me.

“I’m not in awe of any fighter, especially Manny Pacquiao. I hope he’s in awe of me. I’m a one of a kind fighter too. I’ve made history in this sport. This is a defining moment in my career and it’s going to be one of the biggest nights of my life.

“I’m going to turn Las Vegas into a big block party after I win on Saturday night. It’s going to change my career. Manny Pacquiao has done a lot for the sport. I’m going to beat him up and have a drink with him.”

Pacquiao remained more reserved at the pair’s final press conference, but insisted that his motivation had been rejuventated by people writing him off after his surprise defeat to Jeff Horn in 2017.

Pacquiao returned from the loss to win another version of the world title last summer against Lucas Matthyse, scoring his first win stoppage win in nine years.

“I want to go out there and make all the people happy,” Pacquiao said. “The knockout in my last fight felt good. It felt like my younger days against Ricky Hatton, Miguel Cotto and others.

“That fight was a big challenge for me to recover from the fight against Jeff Horn. People said that my career was done. But I never got discouraged, I just worked hard and made the knockout against Lucas Matthysse happen.’

“These days I don’t only train my body, but also my mind. I’m a Senator, so my mind is very busy. I also play chess regularly and read books to keep my mind sharp.

“People writing me off after the Jeff Horn fight was good for me. I’m not mad at anyone who thought that. It just became a challenge and a test to me of whether or not I could still show my best.

Floyd Mayweather, Broner’s former mentor, will be ringside for the fight and is touted to face the winner in a mega pay-per-view fight later in the year.