Pacquiao ignored Parker

Manny Pacquiao was two hours late, walked the red carpet, walked onto the stage, stood alongside the likes of boxing greats Roberto Duran and Jeff Fenech, and then delivered some absolute gold to the room of 700 guests.

For all of 45 seconds.

"This boxer," Pacquiao said pointing to Duran, "was one of my favourite boxers when I first started. And of course, Jeff Fenech. And my friend Tim Bradley."

Bradley is one of the few fighters to have inflicted defeat on Pacquiao in his 67 bouts. Pacquiao then paused, looked around …

"And I don't know the name of the rest of the people here. You will enjoy this fight. Thank you, and good afternoon."

And then he left.

One of the names he didn't know was WBO heavyweight Joseph Parker, who could do nothing but laugh along with the rest of us.

It was typical of the madness at the Brisbane Convention Centre on Friday afternoon as the hype continues to build ahead of Pacquiao's world title fight with local hero Jeff Horn at Suncorp Stadium on Sunday.

It's not boxing custom to have a VIP luncheon with a sprawling red carpet just two days before the fight but this event, the Rocky-esque battle between Horn and 11-time world champion Pacquiao, is very different.

When Pacquiao left the room, his large entourage shadowed him, including several local police as well as his personal bodyguards. A relative of Horn approached him to autograph a pair of gloves, but was quickly dispatched out of the way.

"Horn's going to smash him!" the relative yelled to nobody in particular.

Earlier, Horn did arrive on time and he took his place alongside the sponsors and special guests, who included Michael Buffer, the velvet-voiced ring announcer who has made $300 million off the back of saying, "Let's get ready to rumble!"

As the room fed their faces, quaffing wine and chugging XXXX Gold, Horn had no alternative but to eat air.

"Nothing," he said when asked what he was eating today. "It's really starting to annoy me."

Not even water?

"Just a couple of sips."

Horn said he would eat nothing more than a salad later that night as he prepares to make the welterweight of 66.7 kilograms at Saturday's 9.10am weigh-in, which will be beamed live into America.

He woke up on Friday morning and stood on the scales to see 69.9kgs staring back at him.

"That's the first time I've seen the 69-kilo mark for a while," he said.

The expected crowd of 55,000 on Sunday will go well past the record for a boxing event in this country — the 35,000 at Princes Park in Melbourne in 1992 who watched Fenech suffer a TKO loss to Azumah Nelson.

Fenech has been front and centre at events in Brisbane all week. He is preparing youngster Brock Jarvis on the undercard, and we found him at the end of the red carpet, long before the function started.

Any advice for Horn, Marrickville Mauler?

"Stay on your feet!" he joked, before adding: "He's got to make it a war because he [Pacquiao] hasn't been in a war for a long time."

Pacquiao's aloofness and tardiness since arriving in Brisbane should not be misjudged as arrogance. It's nothing more than typical boxing vaudeville — but it's entertaining nonetheless. And what else, really, is there left to say?

His long-time promoter, Bob Arum, is a former tax lawyer who stumbled into the sport when Muhammad Ali needed representation.

In an interview with Jones, he told the room how Ali could walk from 42nd Street in Manhattan and by the time he arrived at 43rd Street he'd have given away all of his cash.

"The most generous man I've ever met," Arum said, "until I met Manny Pacquiao … Manny called me one day and asked for a $2 million advance on his next purse so he could build 1000 houses in his home province in the Philippines."

Horn is already thinking what an upset win on Sunday could mean to him. An automatic rematch with Pacquiao would net him $2 million. Then there are potentially lucrative fights in the US.

"I already feel like my life's changed," Horn said. "It's already different — and maybe it won't stop. Especially the bank balance. I'm hoping if I can get through this fight and have a good win, I'm not going to have to worry about stuff like a mortgage anymore.

"If I can unify the division, that's a big pay day … I've got to get through this one first."

Let's hope he lasts longer than 45 seconds.