By Mark Whicker / Daily News, Los Angeles
HE used to sleep outdoors, covered by a cardboard box. He weighed 98 pounds in his first pro fight. No one’s rags-to-riches story is raggier or richer than Manny “Pacman” Pacquiao’s.
“He’s like a real-life Rocky [Balboa],” said Freddie Roach, his trainer.
Now Pacquiao says he has one more fight left: April 9 against Timothy Bradley Jr. at the MGM Grand.
We’ll believe it when we see our last Rocky movie. Not even the promoter, Bob Arum, is riding that horse.
“Brandon Rios said he retired and then he unretired 30 minutes later,” Arum said on Tuesday, at the Beverly Hills Hotel. “Antonio Margarito retired and then he came back. I don’t know if this is his last fight or not. But if it is, it’s one of the great careers in boxing.”
Pacquiao has been such a pay-per-view (PPV) stalwart, such a willing champion, that we forget just what an outlier he is. He won that first four-rounder over Edmund Ignacio 21 years ago. He was 22-1 before he fought outside the Philippines and he was 33-2 before he fought outside Asia.
As the boxing world was grieving over the barren landscape that lay behind Oscar de la Hoya, Pacquiao was an unanticipated gift, one that gave over a million PPVs in seven different fights.
“For him to have reached the level that he did is a tribute to him,” Arum said. “But it’s also a tribute to the people in this country who accepted him. It wouldn’t happen in a lot of places. You take this little guy who couldn’t speak English. He was as obscure as you get. He came from a country halfway around the world. And he became a PPV star.” Pacquiao reached the upper crust in 2008 when he took apart de la Hoya and forced his retirement. It’s hard to remember what a major upset it was. Arum recalled telling Richard Schaefer, de la Hoya’s manager, how easy this would be. “I conned him,” he said, with undimmed satisfaction.
Pacquiao did learn English but speaks it sparingly and without controversy. He repeated on Tuesday that he thought he had beaten Floyd Mayweather last May 2, which isn’t the majority opinion.
But he hasn’t chattered his way into prominence, like, say, Conor MacGregor. Obviously PacMan’s kinetic style and his shock-and-awe knockouts got him attention, but somehow his personality clicked with fans everywhere. His decency, too.
“There is a big fishing fleet in Gen San [General Santos City],” Arum said. “It took the fishermen hours to go out in the deep water and come back. Manny bought them all outboard motors. That eliminates four hours a day.
“I know a lot of athletes give to charity, but I think Manny has provided more scholarships than the Philippine government has. People are blown away, because they see a guy who’s not just doing a commercial.”
Pacquiao said he climbed into the ring “to help my family, my mother” but he is leaving the ring to help his country. He will run for Senate, which is a nationwide election, and then who knows? Arum needled a fellow New Yorker by saying that Pacquiao-Bradley will feature “a Donald Trump undercard. All the fighters are Hispanic. We’re dedicating this to the 12 million undocumented immigrants who contribute so much. And if Trump got elected, I would be in the streets with them, protesting.”
Pacquiao’s fans hit the streets when he lost an outrageous decision to Bradley in 2012. He beat Bradley in a 2014 rematch. He could have fought Terence Crawford, who dominates at 140 pounds, but Arum said the PPV distributors preferred Bradley, who has gained charisma with wins over Jessie Vargas and Brandon Rios.
“I picked Bradley because he has been improving,” Pacquiao said. “This will be better than the other two fights we had. It will answer the questions the fans have had. He knocked Rios out with a body shot, and Rios is hard to knock out.”
Pacquiao is also coming off a torn labrum, exacerbated against Mayweather. He said he has been playing basketball with it. “But we don’t know if he’ll be as fast or as powerful,” Arum said. Michael Koncz, Pacquiao’s manager, said he had contacted Mayweather about a rematch “but the response was not positive.” Roach still thinks it will happen, given a rousing win over Bradley.
“Mayweather says he’s retired,” Arum said. “I can only take him at his word. Should you take that to the bank? No.” Pacquiao takes a guaranteed $20 million to the bank after Bradley. Has he taken enough? Maybe, but it’s not even close to what he gave.
Image credits: AP