Pacquiao Adds Rapper Rick Ross to Entourage at LinesMaker

Pacquiao Adds Rapper Rick Ross to Entourage

LAS VEGAS – Manny Pac­quiao has made a sur­pris­ing addi­tion to his fight night entourage: Con­tro­ver­sial rap­per Rick Ross will lead him into the ring ahead of his bout with Shane Mosley on Saturday.

Pac­quiao, who will defend his WBO wel­ter­weight belt against Mosley at the MGM Grand Gar­den Arena, became friends with Ross after using rap music to moti­vate him­self dur­ing train­ing ses­sions and morn­ing runs.

Fol­low­ing a recent meet­ing, the pound-for-pound king invited Ross to be part of his pre-fight prepa­ra­tions by join­ing him in the locker room and pro­vid­ing a high-tempo musi­cal intro­duc­tion for his ring walk. Pacquiao’s pub­li­cist Fred Stern­burg con­firmed that the rap­per will accom­pany Pac­quiao to the ring.

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“Rick Ross – we met in my apart­ment,” Pac­quiao told Hard Knock TV. “He is cool and he is friendly.”

Ross, who named him­self after 1990s drug traf­ficker Free­way Ricky Ross, has thrown him­self into his new role as part of Team Pac­quiao, even design­ing a limited-edition T-shirt com­mem­o­rat­ing the fight – which will be worn by the champ’s cornermen.

How­ever, his pres­ence sits some­what at odds with Pacquiao’s clean-cut image. Ross’ songs are filled with coarse lyrics, he has been involved in a bit­ter pub­lic feud with fel­low artist 50 Cent, and in 2008 he was asso­ci­ated with an alleged assault on enter­tainer DJ Vlad.

Pac­quiao recently released a song him­self, and it was about as far removed from Ross’ style as is pos­si­ble. The star col­lab­o­rated with musi­cian Dan Hill on a ver­sion of “Some­times When We Touch.”

[Related: Pac­quiao looka­like has Vegas doing a dou­ble take ]

Ross was not part of the Pac­quiao group for Friday’s weigh-in, and the 31-year-old fighter brought a smaller than usual team to the stage. There were few sur­prises, with Pac­quiao tip­ping the scales two pounds below the 147-pound limit and Mosley land­ing right on the money.

There was noth­ing in the way of ani­mos­ity between the box­ers &ndahs; not even of the con­trived, pre-fight vari­ety – with warm smiles, hugs and hand­shakes all around.

Trainer Fred­die Roach even revealed that he had been forced to spend extra time talk­ing to Pac­quiao dur­ing train­ing to pre­vent him from work­ing too hard and drop­ping too much weight. Even then, Pac­quiao ate a full break­fast and lunch on Fri­day, and snacked through­out the day.

Related Posts:

• Pac­quiao Fight­ing for Fil­ipino Awareness
• Pac­quiao in Minor Car Acci­dent Before Mosley Fight
• Charice from ‘Glee’ To Sing at Pac­quiao Bout
• May­weather Isn’t Gaga About Pac­quiao Fight
• Pac­quiao Shows Once Again Why He’s a Head­line Act

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