While Britain works itself into a frenzy about two Londoners fighting for a version of the world heavyweight championship in Manchester, the attention of the rest of the boxing universe is concentrated on a Filipino's determination to beat a Mexican in Dallas and thereby make boxing history for all time. The domestic argument between David Haye and Audley Harrison has an intrigue all its own and the WBA title is a major prize for which it is worth spilling blood.
The PacMan is on the brink of becoming the first prize-fighter to win world titles in eight different weight classes.
Since he is already the only seven-division champion, that new record would be expected to stand unequalled for as long as brave men lace up the gloves and climb through the ropes.
Incredibly, had Pacquiao not by-passed light-bantam and bantamweight on his super-human ascent from flyweight to this challenge for the vacant WBC light-middleweight championship, he would now be fighting for a world title in his 10th division.
The full measure of this phenomenon is that the boy who began boxing at 16 and weighing just 7st 8lbs is now, at 30, coming after an 11-stone belt.
Along his unique journey Pacquiao has become the most irresistible Pied Piper in boxing since Muhammad Ali.
Like The Greatest, the PacMan draws worshipers from across the globe. Thousands of his countrymen follow him from his home in the Philippines when he moves training camp to Freddie Roach's Wild Card emporium of pain in Los Angeles.
Thousands more - including Americans of all origins - are joining them on this week's cross-country trip to Texas, there to be joined by fight fans from all corners of the planet.
Scores, if not hundreds, of British aficionados are choosing to fly to Dallas rather than drive to Manchester.
There - in the new Cowboys Stadium which makes Wembley look like Upton Park - they will form part of a crowd in excess of 50,000.
If Pacquiao were fighting Floyd Mayweather Jnr under that roof, they would smash the indoor attendance for a boxing match set in 1978 when 63,315 saw Ali fight Leon Spinks in the Louisiana Superdome.
Not that Margarito, naturally the heavier as well as taller man, is to be taken lightly.
The Mexican is returning from the shame of a solidifying substance being taped onto his fists before a fight against Sugar Shane Mosley.
But even without his hands carrying potentially lethal weapons, he is a formidable foe.
Bob Arum, the legendary promoter of both boxers, has tried to neutralise the disparity in size by contracting the fight at a catchweight 10st 10lbs.
That is three pounds above welterweight, at which Pacquiao is currently world champion, and four below the light-middleweight limit.
In a book* about to be published and which offers a fascinating insight into the PacMan's crowded life, author Gary Poole details the huge amount of eating which the world's best pound-for-pound boxer undertakes when trying to gain weight to take on larger opponents.
That, along with the absence of abnormal muscle mass on his body, goes against the Mayweather insinuations that Pacquiao has used drugs to help him grow.
Rather, he reports himself exhausted by the effort of trying to eat himself heavier and finds it almost impossible to achieve a fighting poundage any higher than 10st 6lbs.
ven more remarkably, Pacquiao does all this while serving as a newly-elected Congressman in the Philippines, distributing many of his millions to the poor, acting in movies and singing in concerts with his band and on network television chat shows
This is multi-tasking on a scale so extraordinary that Roach the master trainer sometimes worries that the pride of his stable of champions is not fully focussed on the violent business at hand.
Political engagements have obliged Pacquiao to miss a couple of days' training but he says he has made up for that by running the Hollywood hills before sparring up to 50 rounds in a day of morning and afternoon sessions.
Our own Amir Khan has been the opponent on several occasions and describes the sparring as 'so intense it is like a real fight.'
Roach is sufficiently reassured to predict that his man's speed and volume of punching will wear Margarito down to a stoppage by the eighth or ninth round.
Whether such a victory will bring the $200million mega-fight with Mayweather any closer is another matter.
Floyd Jnr - assuming he avoids a jail sentence at an imminent assault and larceny trial - is said to be considering a warm-up against Pauli Malignaggi, Khan's most recent victim.
But he has still not responded to Pacquiao offering to waive any and all limitations on blood testing.
Perhaps Mayweather is hoping that the arch-rival he resents being acknowledged as the pound-for-pound king is finally over-reaching himself by going up to light-middleweight and that Margarito will derail him.
If so, he is likely to be disappointed.
*PacMan by Gary Andrew Poole, Da Capo Press/Perseus Books
Source: dailymail.co.uk
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