By MATT BOONE
MMANEWS.COM Staff Writer

General consensus number one (or number two) pound-for-pound boxer (depending on where you rank Floyd Mayweather) Manny "Pacman" Pacquiao recently expressed his interest in following in the footsteps of fellow multi-division boxing champion James "Lights Out" Toney, by stepping into the cage for a MMA bout.

The subject of mixed-martial arts was brought up during a recent pre-fight press conference for Pacquiao, who was asked directly by members of the boxing media to share his thoughts on the possibility of putting on the smaller, fingerless gloves for a scrap inside the octagon (or any other MMA cage/ring).

When prompted, Pacman initially described the sport as too violent, before elaborating further by stating, "I want to [fight MMA], but they [Pacquiao's representatives] don't want me to fight."

The pride of the Philippines continued, claiming if Bob Arum of Top Rank Promotions and his personal adviser Michael Koncz gave it the green light, he would entertain the idea of stepping into the cage for a mixed-martial arts bout.

These comments lead to Pacman's adviser clarifying a thing or two in terms of what is and isn't permitted, as far as he's concerned. Koncz stated, "you know that you could do what you want."

Obviously there's no need for any kind of "Pacquiao-watch" inside MMA circles. However, it is interesting to hear THE guy in the sport of boxing share such a sentiment on this particular subject. While you can pretty much bet your house, car, and anything else of value behind Pacman moving zero-steps closer than he has already with his brief, somewhat "throw-away" comments mentioned above, it does show that the Toney vs. Randy Couture experiment, while dubbed by many a "freak show," did attract the attention of the boxing community, from bottom to top, despite their lack of coverage leading into UFC 118.