Manny Pacquiao 'fever' sweeps across Philippines

Story highlightsManny Pacquiao will http://www.everlast.com/boxing fight Floyd Mayweather on

Sunday, May 2Highly anticipated fight will be watched by millions worldwideSeveral days ago, the
national postal service in the Philippines issued special commemorative stamps featuring the
country's most famous pugilist, Manny "the Pacman" Pacquiao.
"This stamp is selling like hotcakes," said Evelyn Jacala, postmaster at a post office in downtown
Manila.

The stamp shows the athlete, bare-chested and armed with red boxing gloves and his trademark
goatee. A caption calls him the "People's Champ."
"Manny Pacquiao is the first Filipino athlete to be immortalized in a stamp," explained Melanie Cruz,
chief of corporate communications for the Philippine Postal Corporation.
In this island nation, Pacquiao is much more than just a boxer.
"He's my idol!" exclaimed Noreli Domingo, a Filipina visiting Manila from her adopted home in
Hawaii.
Pacquiao is an elected member of the national Congress, the coach and player on his own
professional basketball www.top-boxing-gloves.com/ team, and a real-life rags-to-riches success
story. He famously went from a childhood of hunger and poverty to becoming one of the world's
highest paid athletes.

In the weeks running up to his bout with Floyd Mayweather in Las Vegas, Pacquiao released a music
video. The song he sings is basically a love letter to the Philippines.

The boxer croons into a microphone over images of destruction in Tacloban, the town devastated by
a typhoon in 2013.
Entitled "I fight for the Filipinos," it mixes footage of Pacquiao battling in the ring with video of his
smiling countrymen.

The feeling is clearly mutual.

"Aside from being a good boxer, Pacquiao
is also a good person," said Grace
Peralta. Peralta, who owns a bar in
Manila, spoke to CNN while shopping for
t-shirts with the boxer's face on it at a
Manny Pacquiao souvenir shop.
Peralta said her bar would be showing a
live broadcast of the fight in Las Vegas to customers. Due to the extreme difference in time zones,
the fight -- scheduled for Saturday night in the U.S. -- will take place Sunday morning in the
Philippines.
It is expected to be one of the most watched events of the year here.
The bout will be broadcast live on all of the country's main television networks. The mayor of Manila
has set up free outdoor screenings for crowds in parks and sports stadiums. And for the equivalent
of around $18 a ticket, audiences can watch the boxing match projected live onto the big screen in
many Manila movie theaters.
In the past, Filipino insurgent groups have famously declared ceasefires during Pacquiao bouts.
This week, the national government pledged there would be no black-outs that could threaten
interruptions in broadcasts of the fight. Just in case, an executive with a provincial electric company
urged residents to turn off their appliances this weekend, to ensure steady supplies of power.
Like many more affluent Filipinos, Jesus Macaso had already paid 2500 pesos [around $56] to
purchase a pay-per view live broadcast of the fight.
"It's top-boxing-gloves really a big deal for us. The whole family will be watching," he said, adding
that he planned to roast a pig for the party.

Macaso said he would add newly purchased t-shirts to his existing collection of Pacman memorabilia,
which includes Pacquiao shoes, boxing gloves, a mouthpiece and jump rope.

At the shop, fans can also buy a Pacquiao dart board as well as the boxer's very own cologne. The
name on the bottle says "Scent of the Champion."
Read: Mayweather vs. Pacquiao: After 'Fight of the Century,' is it all downhill?

Read: Face-off: Mayweather vs. Pacquiao by the numbers

Arlene Espiritu contributed to this report