FanHouse MannyPacquaio

Elie Seckbach, the Embedded Correspondent, brings his exclusive video reporting to FanHouse. Check back regularly for more videos.

Troy Rowland considers himself "a down-to-earth, small-town guy," even though that town is Grand Rapids, Mich., hometown of the great Floyd Mayweather Jr.

But on Saturday in one of boxing's meccas, Las Vegas, the fighter with no nickname has a chance to make a name for himself against unbeaten Julio Cesar Chavez Jr., son of a legendary Mexican great. Chavez-Rowland takes place on the undercard of Miguel Cotto vs. Manny Pacquiao at the MGM Grand.

See what's on Rowland's mind in the video after the jump.

Many believe that Miguel Cotto will be the strongest, fastest, and most importantly, best opponent Manny Pacquaio has faced as of late, and at last week's Yankee Stadium press conference to promote the Nov. 14 fight, Cotto sounded extremely confident he will be able to snap Pacquiao's recent winning streak.

FanHouse spoke to the Puerto Rican fighter about the biggest fight of his young career and what he needs to do defeat Pacquaio. The full video interview is below.

When FanHouse spoke to Joshua Clottey at the Manny Pacquaio-Miguel Cotto press conference at Yankee Stadium on Thursday, the 32-year-old native of Ghana admitted feeling frustrated he wasn't the fighter facing Pacquaio in November. Had Clottey defeated Cotto in June, that match-up might have been a possibility.

Regardless, Clottey still has a marquee fight looming on the horizon. He said he has agreed to face Shane Mosley in December, and is just waiting for the contracts to be finalized. Check out the full interview below.

Top Rank founder Bob Arum has never been one to keep his opinions to himself, and when FanHouse caught up with him at the Manny Pacquiao-Miguel Cotto press conference at Yankee Stadium on Thursday, he was in rare form.

The 77-year-old boxing promoter criticized Floyd Mayweather for fighting "scared" and not being an entertaining fighter. Arum also seemed to squash any hopes of seeing a Mayweather-Pacquaio super-fight in the future. But his harshest words were saved for MMA, as Arum said the sport looks like "guys rolling around like homosexuals on the ground" and called MMA fans "a bunch of skinhead white guys." The full video interview is below.

Andre Ward and Edison Miranda are polar opposites outside of the ring. While Miranda loves to talk an enormous amount of trash to help sell a fight, Ward prefers to let his fist do the talking come fight night.

That's not to say that Miranda hasn't gotten under Ward's skin in the weeks leading up to their May 16 super middleweight bout on Showtime. He surely has, but regardless, Ward continues to brush his opponent's comments aside, while simply vowing to make him "pay for that" come Saturday night.

FanHouse spoke to the 2004 Olympic gold medalist about the Miranda's comments and his climb up the 168-pound ladder. The full interview is after the jump.

Following Chad Dawson's 12-round destruction of Antonio Tarver last October, there wasn't much interest in seeing a rematch. However, in the wacky world of professional boxing things like fan interest and common sense don't always come into play. Tarver excercised his rematch clause and there was nothing Dawson could do to avoid the fight.

Plus, Dawson, one of boxing's brightest young stars, will gladly remind you that he never ducks anyone.

FanHouse spoke to Dawson about being forced to fight Tarver again this Saturday night in his HBO debut and his thoughts on Bernard Hopkins' refusal to fight him. The interview is after the jump.

Are World Wrestling Entertainment stars the secret behind Manny Pacquiao's success? Probably not, but one thing's for certain, the consensus pound-for-pound boxing king loves having them around.

Current WWE star and former world champion, Batista, told The Sun (UK) on Friday that he will accompany Pacquaio to the ring prior to tomorrow night's IBO light welterweight title fight against Ricky Hatton in Las Vegas.

Saturday night's Manny Pacquaio vs. Ricky Hatton fight is a co-promotion between Top Rank and Golden Boy Promotions. Pacquaio is a Top Rank fighter, while Hatton fights for Golden Boy. Bernard Hopkins is the president of the east coast chapter of Golden Boy Promotions.

So naturally, "B-Hop" is predicting an easy victory for Hatton, right? Wrong.

In terms of pay-per-view buys, the biggest fight in history was last year's clash between Oscar De La Hoya and Floyd Mayweather.

But De La Hoya's promotion company, Golden Boy Promotions, thinks it's got a bigger fight on its hands when Manny Pacquaio fights De La Hoya on December 6.

Golden Boy CEO Richard Schaefer told me today that he thinks the legions of Filipino fans who support Pacquaio make this fight a huge global event.

"The magnitude of this event is substantially bigger than De La Hoya-Mayweather," Schaefer said. "Mayweather doesn't have the kind of fan support that Manny Pacquiao brings to the table."

I don't think De La Hoya-Pacquaio is going to do as many pay-per-view buys as De La Hoya-Mayweather did, but I do think it's going to be the biggest pay-per-view event of the year by a large margin, and an event that will have the kind of global appeal that few sporting events can match.

Oscar De La Hoya weighed in at 150 pounds for his last fight and has fought most of his career at 147. Manny Pacquiao weighed 135 for his last fight and has fought most of his career at under 120. So does that mean De La Hoya has an advantage in their fight on December 6, which will be fought at 147? I asked Pacquaio that today:

When I asked Pacquaio how much he weighs right now, I was surprised that he said 152 pounds. So it's not a matter of Pacquiao needing to bulk up to fight De La Hoya; it's just that he won't be cutting much weight.