LAS VEGAS?A final walk out into the embrace of an applauding throng. A final ascent to the ring bathed in the spotlight and into the adoration of an audience he has thrilled. There, Manny Pacquiao will listen as he is introduced one last time. He will wave to the crowd a final time, receive final instructions and answer the bell one final time.
And, if Pacquiao has his way, he will forge a spectacular victory?one final time?to cement a legend that will long endure.
If an entire fight week was a single snapshot filtered in hues of nostalgia, there is reason for that.
The world?s only eight-division boxing champion faces Timothy Bradley on Saturday (Sunday in Manila) at MGM Grand Garden Arena on the heels of his declaration that this will be his last fight, that this will be the last time he will subject his 37-year-old body to boxing?s brutal beating in search for that lasting moment of glory for a country he has spoiled with his success.
?I?m so happy hanging up my gloves after this fight,? Pacquiao said when the Bradley fight was first announced. ?I?m sure I?ll feel sad after that, but that?s life. It?s time, I think.?
In what could be the last time he trained at Wild Card gym in Los Angeles, which he helped turn from a nondescript sweat factory to a training hot spot, Pacquiao did not budge.
?I have no regrets,? Pacquiao said in an interview dripping with sentimentality. ?I faced every fighter I could possibly fight and I?m happy with my accomplishments in boxing. It?s the first time someone got eight titles in eight different divisions.?
Even those who had doubted his word are starting to believe him.
No more hunger
Top Rank promoter Bob Arum, who said he was not going to promote this as Pacquiao?s last fight because he has seen boxers turn back on their word in the 50 years he has promoted fights, is slowly realizing that the Filipino ring icon could be serious.
?I can feel that he is really serious about retirement,? Arum said. ?There?s no more hunger and he is focused on what he?s going to do for his country and family after leaving boxing.?
Pacquiao and Bradley cleared the final hurdle for the fight when both checked in below the welterweight limit in Friday?s weigh-in.
Pacquiao, who needed to bulk up after going as low as 141 pounds before his team convoyed to this glitzy Nevada gambling haven from Los Angeles, checked in at 145.5. Bradley came in a pound heavier but needed to shed off six pounds from a week before fight night.
