Manny Pacquiao faced off with YouTube star DK Yoo in Los Angeles yesterday ahead of the pair's exhibition bout - in hologram form.
The former eight-division world champion retired from boxing last year, but has followed in rival Floyd Mayweather's footsteps by taking on a social media star in a big-money exhibition bout. The scoreless exhibition will take place in Seoul's KINTEX Arena on December 10, with the much bigger influencer taking on a far more experienced opponent in Pacquiao.
The boxing legend was in Seoul for the press conference and was unable to travel to Los Angeles, but instead of appearing via video link as fighters often do, he was brought in as a hologram to answer questions from the media. The aesthetics were interesting as Pacquiao answered questions seemingly from a box while DK Yoo appeared in person.
Pacquiao and Yoo were even able to do a face-off using the hologram technology, in a bizarre head-to-head that left some scratching their heads. Standing at 5'10" Yoo towered over 5'5" Pacquiao, with the pair being photographed and asked questions by media in California.
"I am going to prove that I'm still there in this sport and that Manny Pacquiao is not done yet," Pacquiao said. "It's a great experience to face a martial arts expert and I'm excited for that. I'm also excited to get back to training like what we used to do before and now I'm trying to prove that Manny Pacquiao is still there in boxing.
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"This is my comeback to the ring and I am so excited for that. This is my passion so I have to work hard even though this is just an exhibition match. I want to weigh in around 148lb or 149lb, my fighting weight, because I want to move fast and use my speed in this fight. All fighters that go to the ring, their intention is to knock the opponent out, but my style is going to be aggressive. There will be more punches in the ring. I'm used to fighting a bigger guy."
DK Yoo appeared stunned to be in the presence of a legendary fighter similarly to Deji, who was squaring off with Floyd Mayweather earlier in the day. And he expressed his excitement at getting to face Pacquiao by detailing what the exhibition meant to him.
"I am very excited, he's one of the very best boxers in the world," he added. "But I am just focused on my movement in this event against Manny Pacquiao. I will just try to knock him down, I'm going to apply my movement to the boxing. I'm younger, I am heavier and I have longer arms than him so I will just focus on that."
