Pacquiao faces big questions
He’ll fight Argentine champ Saturday
LOS ANGELES — The doom and gloom that others cast on the ongoing boxing career of Manny Pacquiao certainly isn’t penetrating him.
There are obvious reasons for alarm. He has left his longtime trainer, Freddie Roach, is fighting for the first time in a year after being roughed up in a loss, and he’s now 39 years old.
Securing the financing for his bout Saturday night at Malaysia’s 16,000-seat Axiata Arena was an ordeal that wasn’t resolved until last month, ticket sales are sluggish and he has fallen from routine pay-per-view treatment in the United States to placement on the ESPN+ app.
“Everything is fine and I’m excited,” Pacquiao told the Los Angeles Times recently in a telephone conversation. “It’s going to be a good fight.”
Pacquiao (59-7-2, 38 knockouts) is fighting Argentina’s Lucas Matthysse (39-4, 36 KOs) for the secondary World Boxing Association welterweight belt that Matthysse won in January by overcoming a slow start to knock out Tewa Kiram in the eighth round.
“We know Matthysse’s style is very aggressive, so there’s little option but for there to be a lot of boxing in the ring,” Pacquiao said.
The question is what caliber of boxing Pacquiao can provide.
After injuring his left shoulder doing pushups off sandbags at Roach’s Wild Card Boxing Club in Los Angeles in 2015, Pacquiao decided to fight Floyd Mayweather Jr. in the most lucrative fight in history, and couldn’t effectively throw power punches, souring fans on the sport as Mayweather fought evasively.
Although Pacquiao returned to defeat Jessie Vargas for the World Boxing Organization welterweight belt in 2016, he was manhandled by Jeff Horn in Australia last July with little referee involvement and lost his belt by a disputed decision.
Earlier this year, Pacquiao replaced Roach with a team led by former assistant trainer “Buboy” Fernandez.
“I think — and hope — that Manny wins,” Roach said. “But Manny has a bad shoulder. The rehab on that shoulder was done by praying and swimming in the ocean.
“The ocean has healing properties, so I liked the ocean more than the praying, but when you’re telling [Pacquiao surgeon Neal] ElAttrache that the rehab is sea water and praying, he would frown.
“So, to me, that shoulder is still a dangerous thing, when you’re conditioning by putting pressure on the upper body.”
Pacquiao said he has divided up the work for Fernandez, conditioning coach Justin Fortune and new assistant trainer Nonito Donaire Sr.
“I give each of them a task, to watch my defense, my footwork, my head movement and the accuracy of the punches, and I had good sparring with four boxers,” Pacquiao said.
“I’m enjoying training. I’m happy. I still have my speed and power. I’m thankful I still have that skill. And we work hard here. The weather [was] really hot [in thePhilippines] and we were running through the mountain and sparring. … This camp is focusing on the power, and the accuracy of the punches is the main focus.
“I’m not going to promise a knockout, but if there’s a chance, why not?”
Although there has been speculation that Pacquiao’s U.S. tax problems will prevent him from returning for another fight, he said he plans to defeat Matthysse and pursue a showdown with three-division champion Vasiliy Lomachenko, who wears a lightweight belt.