LOS ANGELES — Manny Pacquiao has come a long way from the time the scrawny kid from the Philippines walked inside the hallowed confines of Freddie Roach’s Wild Card Boxing Club in Hollywood one sunny May afternoon in 2001.
At that time, nobody dared and cared to give him a second look since nobody knew exactly who he was except for hardcore followers of the fight game.
More than 20 years after that accidental meeting at the gym, Roach remains passionately in love with Pacquiao, who makes a return to active duty on 21 August against Errol Spence at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.
Based on what Roach has seen since the first week of July, it doesn’t look as though he has slipped even a bit.
“He hasn’t cut one corner in training camp,” Roach said.
“Not one. He runs up the hills in Griffith Park straight to the Hollywood sign. He crunches thousands of sit-ups daily. He spars three days each week and hits every bag on the gym floor with bad intentions.”
Less than two weeks away from the Spence showdown, Pacquiao, 42, remains in fast and furious mode in anticipation of the brand of mayhem his 31-year-old opponent is going to brandish.
Spence is risking two 147-lb titles — the World Boxing Council and International Boxing Federation — and his reputation as the division’s top dog.
Pacquiao, too, is taking a gamble by facing Spence and not some guy from the crowd as a comeback foe.
But given Pacquiao’s glowing track record, Roach is of the belief that they are not at an extreme disadvantage.
“He (Pacquiao) is still the hardest worker I have ever trained and an eager student. He wants this (fight) more than anything,” Roach, 51, said.
While almost every facet of their matchup favors Spence, there is one thing that could spell the difference between victory and defeat.
Though Spence holds the edge in youth and size, there is one factor the American puncher could not consider as his and his alone: experience.
Pacquiao, a pro since 1995, had been there and done everything in the ring except trade punches with a kangaroo.
When he insists he has seen it all, Pacquiao is not over-exaggerating.
Being boxing’s only eight-division champion, what Pacquiao is saying is pure fact.
