Pacquiao could meet Lin next week

Plans are in the works for for RING No. 1-rated pound-for-pound fighter, Manny Pacquiao, of the Philippines, to meet Taiwanese-American NBA star Jeremy Lin of the New York Knicks at New York's Madison Square Garden on Wednesday in a pairing that would match two of the world's hottest and most prominent Asian athletes, Top Rank anounced on Wednesday.

Top Rank is attempting to sandwhich a visit for Pacquiao with Lin between a two-city tour promoting Pacquiao's June 9 defense of his WBO welterweight belt against WBO junior welterweight beltholder Tim Bradley at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas.

On Tuesday, Pacquiao and Bradley will be in Beverly Hills, Calif., for a press conference at the Beverly Hills Hotel. Two days later, on Thursday, the fighters will be in New York for a luncheon that will be open to the public at Chelsea Piers in The Lighthouse at Pier 60.

Since Lin has taken on the role of point guard, the Knicks have won seven straight games, even as Carmelo Anthony has missed their past five with a strained right groin injury. Pacquiao will fly to New York on Tuesday night, and meet Lin, the next day.

Pacquaio is a point guard on the team he owns in the Philippines named the MP-Gensan Warriors, and wears the same jersey, No. 17, as Lin.

Top Rank has also scheduled Pacquiao to be on hand at the party for former heavyweight champion Muhammad Ali on Saturday, hosted by the Cleveland Clinic Lou Ruvo Center for Brain Health, which is honoring the legendary boxer following his recent 70th birthday.

The event will benefit the Muhammad Ali Center and the clinic, which is engaged in the most comprehensive brain imaging study of professional boxers to date, and has imaged the brains of a large number of professional boxers and mixed martial artists. The study will enroll 600 over the next four years.

Lem Satterfield can be reached at lemuel.satterfield@gmail.com