In the early hours of the longest of sporting Sundays Manny Pacquiao will attempt to beat Lucas Matthysse and win yet another world title

The longest day for sports addicts just got considerably longer with confirmation that Manny Pacquiao‘s attempt to win yet another world title will be shown live on television here in the very early hours of this coming Sunday.

Pacquiao’s challenge for the WBA welterweight title held by Argentine puncher Lucas Matthysse takes place at 9am on Sunday in the Malaysian capital of Kuala Lumpur. That’s 2am UK time and 9pm Saturday night in New York.

The BoxNation transmission is due to start about midnight and will go through to dawn here.

A read of the Sunday papers followed by a cold shower could keep us going through to brunch while watching Stage 9 of the Tour De France.

That covers the small matter of 156km from Arras to Roubaix, an extreme 21 of those along cobbled streets. A lot of hard bumps and perhaps some rotten eggs coming the way of Chris Froome. There will also be some time to dip into the final round of the Scottish Open.

Cometh 2pm, cometh the men’s singles final at Wimbledon.

Another of those four-hour epics between two out of Roger Federer, Rafa Nadal and Novak Djokovic would carve into the World Cup final with its 4pm kick-off.

If that is England vs France or Belgium – let it be, let it be – the ecstasy or the agony would orgy on close to midnight, after highlights and replays, to complete a 24-hour telly-marathon.

The divorce lawyers could be busy next week.

Will the fight fraternity get the whole trip? That may depend on how energising the battle is between Pacquiao and Matthysse.

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The BoxNation transmission is due to start about midnight and will go through to dawn here

Pacquiao is going for his 12th world title, as the only ever eight-division champion.

He says he feels ’28 again’ after modifying his regime of fitting training into his political career as a Philippines senator. But at 39 it is not possible for him to be the devastating PacMan of hard years gone by.

Even so, he was robbed last time out by an Aussie home-town decision in favour of Jeff Horn, who is physically bigger than Matthysse.

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Stage 9 of the Tour De France, the Wimbledon final and World Cup final are also on Sunday

There should still be enough left in the tank for Pacquiao to stave off a losing end to a magnificent career, so far totalling 68 fights, 59 wins, 38 by knockout and seven defeats and spanning 23 years, Amir Khan will be watching and hoping Pacquiao achieves his 60th victory, as he continues his pursuit of a super-fight against the idol with whom he used to spar in master trainer Freddie Roach’s Wild Card Gym in Hollywood.

Matthysse has plenty of knockouts to his account and will go for another. That is likely to leave him open, however. So Pacquiao may well be right in predicting an early victory for himself when he says: ‘I don’t expect this one to go the distance.’ That is also the challenge facing British viewers on Sunday.