Pacquiao pulls no punches
THE EASIEST question to answer is not who will win but who should we want to win: Manny Pacquiao.
Floyd Mayweather flaunts his wealth; Pacquiao distributes it. Mayweather has left the ghetto far behind for his mansions in Florida and Las Vegas; Pacquiao still lives in the Philippines, where he is an elected politician determined to tackle poverty. Mayweather fights for number one; Pacquiao fights for his people.
Straight away there is a paradox. As a boxer, Pacquiao, the good guy, is a brutally violent, non- stop aggressor who overwhelms opponents with murderous intentions, throwing punches from the southpaw stance with the same abandon with which he gives away his money.
Mayweather, the bad guy in our simplistic morality tale, is a skilled craftsman, a defensive fighter whose command of movement and strategy is usually complete and often beautiful.
When the first bell rings, it is Pacquiao who has it all to do, who must find a way, grasp his chance. But then that is the story of his remarkable life.
Pacquiao was born dirt poor in the Philippines. His father killed, cooked and ate the family’s pet dog and abandoned his wife and six children. Pacquiao left school at 10 and became a street urchin in General Santos City, selling cigarettes and scrapping in semiorganised public fights.
Promising to help his mother, Pacquiao stowed away on a ferry to Manila and turned professional at 16. With a frenzied, near-suicidal style in which any thought of defence was absent, he won his first 11 fights. In his 12th fight, he suffered the first of the five reverses that punctuate his career and which contrast so starkly with Mayweather’s perfect record.
Establishing a pattern that would run throughout his career, Pacquiao rededicated himself, became even more aggressive, and won his first world title in 1998 at flyweight.
But for serendipity, Pacquiao would in all probability have remained in the Far East fighting for moderate rewards. But when his manager, Rod Nazario, visited relatives in California, Pacquiao tagged along. Pacquiao and his manager entered the Wild Card gym on Vine Street, Los Angeles, in 2001. Nazario talked up his man and the gym’s owner and principal trainer, Freddie Roach, agreed to take a look at Pacquiao.
One of the great odd- couple boxing partnerships had been formed. Roach has Parkinson’s disease, the result of a boxing career in which, he accepts, he took two or three punches for every one he landed. The medication Roach takes can make him depressed and he battles suicidal thoughts by running his gym from eight in the morning to eight at night.
At the beginning of their collaboration, and with only 10 days’ notice, Pacquiao was drafted in as a substitute to take on Lehlo Ledwaba, the IBF super-bantamweight world champion at the MGM Grand Hotel, Las Vegas.
It was Pacquiao’s first fight in America. He entered the ring unknown and left a hero. In Manila, he was greeted by the president. In America, he was embraced by Filipinos and feted by boxing fans in general. They recognised a throwback to the Depression era when fighting with a savage desperation was the norm.
Pacquiao’s style, mostly relying on the power in his left hand, was reckless and thrilling, but it was also predictable and limited. When Manny Pacquiao will only drink hot or room temperature water, never cold water because he feels it’s not healthy. He regularly has 500 fans follow him on his morning runs in Los Angeles. He has five children — Emmanuel Jr, Michael Stephen, Mary Divine Grace, Queen Elizabeth and Israel. He has served as a congressman in the Philippines and is seen by some as a future president. He’s also a Lieutenant Colonel in the Reserve Force of the Philippine Army. He’s appeared in several films in his home nation, including roles as a rebel commander, as ‘‘Pacman’’, a superhero, in a red costume, fighting crime. He’s the shortest man to play professional basketball in the Philippines. Former NBA player Daniel Orton was sacked from a rival team after chiding his basketball ability after a game. he was beaten and badly hurt by Erik Morales, a formidable Mexican, Roach knew that Pacquiao had to adapt. They worked on developing his use of his right hand and changing his punching angles so that his all-out attacks would be more difficult to defend against or counter.
From 2005 to 2012, Pacquiao carved his way through boxing’s divisions from super-featherweight to light- middleweight. He destroyed every major name, except Mayweather. The Morales defeat was twice avenged; Oscar De La Hoya was bludgeoned into retirement; Ricky Hatton was chillingly knocked out.
With wealth beyond his imagination, Pacquiao branched out into singing and training his own basketball team. He was a soft touch to anyone with a hard-luck story and went into politics, running for office in the Philippines House of Representatives in 2007 on a liberal ticket. He lost but when he tried again in 2010, under the banner of his own party, the People’s Champ Movement, he won by a landslide. In 2013, he was reelected unopposed. In 2012, Pacquiao’s seven-year ascendancy in world boxing was shattered by two defeats at welterweight. He was controversially beaten on points by Timothy Bradley and savagely knocked out by an old foe, Juan Manuel Marquez, in their fourth meeting.
Pacquiao has since won three contests, including a return against Bradley, on points but without quite the irresistible fury that was his trademark. And now, after six years of negotiations, he meets Mayweather.
There is no doubt who wanted the fight the most: Pacquiao has never shirked a challenge. He has had to accept 40 per cent of the $ US300m purse against Mayweather’s 60 per cent. He has had to submit to a number of further demands and calculated irritations.
That may mean that Pacquiao is convinced he will win. Or that he needs the money.