Pacquiao unworried about his well-being in fight vs. Spence

LOS ANGELES >> This will not be the first time we have sent sympathy cards to Manny Pacquiao in advance.

On Aug. 21 Pacquiao walks into a Las Vegas ring with Errol Spence

Jr., the WBC and IBF welterweight champion. Presumably he will be able to find it. He is 42 years old and has not fought since July 31, 2019, when he got a decision over Keith Thurman. Since then he has worked as a senator in the Philippines and played basketball through the pandemic, up to four hours a day. He will not be favored to either win or reach the end of the 12th round.

So what? Thirteen years ago Pacquiao also had to quell various tears and fears. He was up against Oscar De La Hoya, the essential 147-pound champion of his time. Pacquiao had weighed 129 and 134½ in his previous two fights.

“There was a lawmaker back home who passed a resolution,” Pacquiao said, smiling as he sat in a break room at Fox Sports headquarters on Sunday. “He wanted to stop the fight because it was too dangerous for me.”

Pacquiao won every round until De La Hoya, a glacier against an avalanche, retired after the eighth. De La Hoya has not fought since.

“I went back and told the lawmaker, ‘You were right. It was dangerous. For the other guy,’” Pacquiao said.

He explained that he had weighed the perils more carefully than anyone. Promoter Bob Arum asked him if he was ready for De La Hoya, and Pacquiao said, “Give me one week.” He studied the Golden Boy’s golden moments as well as his decline.

“Then I called Bob and said, ‘OK, I want the fight,’” Pacquiao said. “And Bob said, ‘Are you sure?’ By then I was.”

He posed for photos with Jalen Green, who might be the first player picked in the 2022 NBA draft. When Green was born in February of 2002, Pacquiao was already the IBF super bantamweight champion. He has fought 33 men who were champs, ex-champs or future champs. That’s six more pro fights than Spence has ever had.

There is no doubting Spence, 31 and unbeaten and considered either No. 1 or 1-A among U.S. boxers, depending on how you fancy Terence Crawford.

But Pacquiao was 10 years older than Thurman, who was also undefeated. He decked Thurman in the first round and disabled him with a cruel body shot in the 10th round.

“I think Keith was shocked by Manny’s speed at first,” said ex-welterweight champ Shawn Porter, who lost a split decision to Spence in 2019. “It takes you a minute, and by that I mean, maybe a couple of rounds.”

Porter, like many of us, avidly watched “The Kings,” the four-part documentary series on how Ray Leonard, Thomas Hearns, Marvin Hagler and Roberto Duran ruled the 1980s.

They squeezed every drop from their careers, even if it meant blood.

Leonard beat Hagler after nearly three years off, lost to Terry Norris after 14 months off, lost spectacularly to Hector Camacho after six years off.

Hearns was 41 when he lasted two pitiful rounds against Uriah Grant (2714) in what was his farewell fight. He somehow found two guys he could beat after that.

Duran’s swan song should have been his unanimous “Uno Mas” loss to Leonard in 1989, but he lasted until 2001, when Camacho decisioned him. Duran was 50. His record was 103-16.

“What Manny is doing is part of history,” Porter said. “Leonard, Hearns and Duran — they came out of retirement to reclaim glory, to chase it. The younger generation should pay attention to what they’re doing.”

Pacquiao lost a good friend, Filipino governor Douglas Cagas, to COVID-19 earlier this year. He also sharpened his political identity. He has cited corruption in the regime of President Rodrigo Duterte, a former ally, and Duterte has knocked him for his tax issues and for leaving the legislature to take this fight.

Duterte’s daughter Sara is expected to run for president in 2022, and Pacquiao, the head of the PBP-Laban Party, might oppose her.

So crowds will surround Pacquiao as far as he can see. That, he admitted, is hard to abandon.

“When you’re passionate about boxing, it’s like you become addicted,” Pacquiao said. “It’s not like a basketball team. With boxing it’s you alone. You’re cheered by millions around the world.”

Can Spence make the cheering stop?

“My edge will be experience,” Pacquiao said. “Some people are young in boxing. They don’t know what it’s about. It’s like if you were a professor and the students told you they know what’s right.”

He smiled again.

“But they don’t.”