Manny Pacquiao has not knocked out an opponent for seven years.
Read and inwardly digest.
That piece of information comes as something of shock to many of the thousands descending on Sin City for this weekend’s return of the Pacman from the faux retirement he announced a brief seven months ago.
The loudest reminder of that statistic is being broadcast by the world welterweight champion he is about to challenge in the Thomas and Mack college basketball arena.
By so doing Jessie Vargas, holder of the WBO belt who was under consideration as a tick-over opponent for Kell Brook before Special K ill-advisedly went up in weight to take on the ferocious Gennady Golovkin, is reassuring himself in regard to the size of his task against the Philippine legend.
However, simply by his physical presence, Vargas is the explanation as to why Pacqiao has now been taken the full 12-round distance in all his 11 fights since 2009.
Put in words, the solution to this conundrum is that Pacquiao has been fighting men significantly bigger than himself and is about to do so again.
Where other boxers have to drain down to the maximum stipulated weight for their division, Pacquiao has to keep eating heartily to come within scaling distance of the 147lbs welter limt.
The last stoppage inflicted by him, against Miguel Cotto, came in the final round of his first fight at welterweight.
Pacquiao won his first major championship as a flyweight and has needed all his superlative talent and exceptional power for a small man to keep climbing through the weights and become the only fighter ever to hold world titles in eight divisions.
But he is aware of the need for a knock-out spectacular now if he is to lure Floyd Mayweather out of his retirement for a rematch next year ? as well as answer a clarion call from the leader of the country he himself serves as a Senator.
President Rodrigo Duterte took time out this week from orchestrating the hunting down and often the killing of Philippine drug traffickers to call Pacquiao in Las Vegas and urge him: ‘I hope you can win this fight in the early rounds.’
The Pacman will try his utmost to oblige. He says: ‘Every time in the ring I want to give the fans the excitement they deserve. I always do my best to get the knock-out but it is
‘More difficult against opponents who are bigger than me and tough enough to take more punishment.
‘But while I am not making a prediction for this fight against Vargas I will say that if the knock out comes, it will come as a bonus for all my sacrifices in training.’
Prior to travelling from Manila to Vegas he was attending to his day job as a Senator, then training at night.
In one sense the problem helped him fuel the energy required for those double duties ‘because I have to eat a lot.’
He adds: ‘Not only am I the smaller man to begin with but my opponents put on several pounds between the weigh-in and the fight, while the most I can hope to gain is a pound or two.’
His weight has been an issue throughout his 21-year career. He likes to tell this story about his first professional fight, as a 16-year-old: ‘It was in the smallest division, minimal weight. That is at 105 lbs.
‘But I was so much lighter ? about 97 lbs ? that I went to the scales with a heavy metal weight in my shorts in case they refused to let me fight.’
As he approaches his 38th birthday, next month, he says: ‘Of course you become heavier naturally as you get older. But my best fighting weight now is 140 lbs, not 147, and I could still make 135 lbs.’
Vargas is hoping also that the ten-year age difference between them will work to his benefit. He says: ‘I have great respect for Manny as a boxer and I admire all his achievements.
‘But now, as the young world champion who is hungry to make his name famous, this is my time. I am the one who will be delivering the knock-out.’
Pacquiao insists that his appetite remains as healthy in the ring as at his favourite Thai restaurant: ‘I am proud to have made history in boxing and I am hungry to make more by becoming the first sitting Senator to win a world title.’
Although he is unfailingly polite, Pacquiao responds to Vargas’ prediction by saying: ‘Many of my opponents make a case in their minds of how they can beat me. Then they find it surprisingly difficult to turn thoughts into deeds against me.’
Vargas, at 5ft 10 in, stands four inches taller than Pacquiao. He has a similar edge in reach and, as Las Vegas resident, home-town advantage.
Of which the Pacman says: ‘None of that in itself is not a problem for me. In the end, it is the skills which count.’
Unless the burdens of being a politician as well as a pugilist are weighing him down, which he denies, the Pacman’s superior talent should prevail.
Perhaps, this time, by way of knock-out. To the gratification of his President, the expectation of his fabled trainer Freddie Roach ? and the prolongation of an already remarkable career.
