Recap: Manny Pacquiao on Jimmy Kimmel Live

I'm not a huge fan of Jimmy Kimmel. I find him less funny than his competing late night hosts, but Manny Pacquiao was on tonight, so Kimmel got my eyeballs for at least one evening.

Pac Man got a good reaction from the studio audience when he was first mentioned during the monologue, and they did a short bit where Manny helped to get rid of leftover jack-o-lanterns by using them as punching targets during his training. Take that, pumpkins!

Kimmel asked his sidekick Guillermo if he knew why Pacquiao was also known as "The Mexicutioner." He knew it was because Manny was renowned for beating up Mexicans, but the host also said it was because Pacquiao was there to kill him.

Sadly, we still had to wait until Dancing With the Stars cast-offs Michael Irvin and Mark Dacascos were interviewed, plus sit through Pamela Anderson's appearance. Pam asked if Manny was in UFC. Uh, no. Please leave.

Kimmel's intro of Manny was done over highlights of his knockout of Ricky Hatton. The audience was pumped and some of the fans started chanting his name.

Asked about the Pac Man nickname, Manny said he did play the video game when he was young but now had a dog with the moniker. Kimmel brought out a DVD case called Wapakman, a super hero movie starring Pacquiao (when asked what super powers his character has, Manny replied "All of them."), and needled him a bit about his music career.

Manny spoke a bit about his fame in his home country, remarking that he could not go to the mall. He was good-natured about the size of his entourage, saying that he had eight guys staying with him in his L.A. apartment, all with different tasks.

After briefly talking about his children, Pacquiao was asked to demonstrate one of his training techniques that involved being hit in the torso with a stick. Guillermo gave him a few hesitant whacks and Manny got to get a few (soft) licks in on Kimmel.

Getting down to the fight, Manny said Miguel Cotto was a tough opponent that he was taking very seriously. He was noncommittal about his future in the sport following this fight.

After the break, Manny showed off his singing skills with the house band backing him. The audience gave him a standing O for his rendition of the 1977 Dan Hill ballad "Sometimes When We Touch."

All in all, a fun bit of fluffy publicity for the fight. Even though Pac Man's English prevents any lengthy interview answers - and that's not what a show like Kimmel's is really about anyway - his likability came across pretty easily.

Posted by The Franchise