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Philippines, 24 Nov 2024 |
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MANNY PACQUIAO: THE SAGA CONTINUES, PART I By Ronnie Nathanielsz PhilBoxing.com Sat, 18 Aug 2007  When Filipino ring idol Manny Pacquiao suddenly decided to forego plans to drive to Sacramento from Los Angeles last weekend to serve as captain of the Philippine Team in the World Cup of boxing against the ring warriors of Mexico at the Arco Arena, he sparked a flood of rumors and speculations that hounded him for a couple of days. The initial plan was for Pacquiao to face-off with legendary Mexican Marco Antonio Barrera, his October 6 adversary, who was to act as skipper of the Mexicans in the World Cup showdown. It was obviously a great way to hype the World Cup itself aside from their eagerly awaited rematch at the Mandalay Bay Resort Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas, the boxing capital of the world. In fact, celebrated trainer Freddie Roach told Viva Sports/Manila Standard Today in one of several overseas telephone conversations that he was flying with Golden Boy Promotions Oscar De La Hoya in his private plane to Los Angeles to pick up Pacquiao and take him to Sacramento. Apparently, there was no seat available for Filipino trainer and Pacquiao’s boyhood friend Restituto “Buboy” Fernandez on the plane and Pacquiao told Roach he “didn’t want to leave Buboy” and said he would drive to Sacramento along with Fernandez in time for the fights. Roach recalls “he (Pacquiao) called me up and told me he had to go home to take care of a personal problem.” Scores of fight fans who were eagerly awaiting the arrival of Pacquiao at the official weigh-in and the fights themselves were sorely disappointed. The six Filipino boxers, looking to get a morale boost by the Pacman’s presence, to some extent felt abandoned. Even the Pacland website carried some adverse reaction by Pacquiao-bashers who criticized him for being “unpatriotic and unprofessional.” Pacquiao told us he didn’t make any commitment to go to Sacramento but he said “I prayed for our fighters because they were also fighting for our country and I wanted them to win and I am elated that they did” adding “my prayers were more important than my presence.” Jake Joson, the chief-of-staff of Pacquiao who is with him much of the time, sought to set the record straight. He said nobody had officially informed Pacquiao that he was being named team captain or that he was expected to be in Sacramento. “There was no official commitment although there was an invitation.” Whoever it was, took too much for granted. Besides, according to Joson, Pacquiao rushed to Los Angeles for the postponed press conference with Barrera at the plush Beverly Hills Hotel on Wednesday only to find out that it had been pushed back by two days. Of course they failed to remember that the first scheduled press conference had to be scrapped when Pacquiao failed to take the flight to LA and since it was too late to postpone the event, Top Rank promoter Bob Arum and Golden Boy CEO Richard Schaefer wound up as substitutes for a chat with sports media since they had resolved their bitter dispute over promotional rights to Pacquiao and had come to terms in the interest of the sport and some big money down the line. Joson admitted Pacquiao had “a personal problem” but nobody wished to inquire what it was all about although Joson did have an inclination that it concerned Manny’s wife Jinkee. Roach was surprised but, as always, he didn’t show his displeasure, publicly. At the same time he branded as “a lie” the claim that he and Pacquiao got into a spat which was one of the reasons why Manny flew back to Manila. Roach merely said that Manny “had some personal problems to attend to so he flew back to Manila.” What were the “personal problems?” If you knew Pacquiao you’d understand that he is rather superstitious. For instance, whenever he leaves for a fight in the US he either trains even for a short while at the rundown, old L&M Gym in a seedy backstreet in Manila or merely passes by, gives the heavy bag a couple of bare-fisted shots and says a prayer before leaving for the airport. The other reality is that he needs to have Fernandez by his side. One has only to recall the one hour delay before he finally checked in for the PAL flight to LA last week. When he learned that Buboy hadn’t a ticket and was scheduled to fly the following day, Pacquiao reportedly had his luggage off-loaded before a couple of phone calls to PAL president Jaime Bautista, according to Pacquiao’s business manager Eric Pineda, okayed a switch in tickets where longtime friend and confidant Rex “Wakee” Salud’s business class ticket for the trip was swapped and given to Fernandez just so Pacquiao would leave. Pacquiao was irritated by a newspaper article that claimed he left but not before reportedly inconveniencing the other passengers who were sitting in the plane for one hour before take-off. His version is that the flight was overbooked and that caused the problem. Pacquiao insisted he didn’t hold up the departure and branded the story as “false.” Similarly, since there was no seat for Fernandez on the private plane that was to fly Pacquiao to Sacramento from LA he reportedly told De La Hoya and Roach he would drive down to Sacramento the day of the World Cup. But it didn’t happen and instead he took a flight home. In typical showbiz fashion – Manny being more than just a boxer and regarded as an entertainer with his recordings, concert performances and movies - rumors flew thick and fast. One such story was that Pacquiao and Roach had an argument which Roach flatly denied, over and over again. The other, more juicy if not troublesome speculation was that the ring gladiator was love-struck and rushed back because he missed the leading lady in his latest movie, ”Anak ni Kumander,” sexy actress and singer Ara Mina. The rumors actually began in September last year when Ara Mina was among the stars who were featured in a concert staged in Pacquiao’s hometown of General Santos City and being the kind of hero he is in the place as well as being a generous host, he spent time with his showbiz friends taking care of their needs. Nothing more, nothing less. But the story goes that Pacquiao’s wife Jinkee didn’t take too kindly to her husband’s spending so much time with the entertainers and in a quiet way showed she was peeved. In fact, there are those who claim that she didn’t want Pacquiao to pick Ara Mina as his leading lady in his latest movie but that Manny went ahead anyway because there was nothing to it. In fact when well-known lady columnist Beth Celis met the two at a party in White Plains of Orville Roque, president of Astra whose product - Extreme Magic Sing – is endorsed by Pacquiao, Beth told us she noticed “nothing to suggest they were having any sort of relationship. I couldn’t get myself to believe that any of it is true. ”In fact Celis, a longtime friend in sports conceded that she, being a woman, “ simply didn’t feel anything between them.” Ara Mina herself scoffed at the rumors saying it was illogical to link Pacquiao’s return to her when she herself was leaving for a series of shows in Canada and the US on Thursday, August 16. Ara Mina appealed to the media not to impute malice to her going out with Pacquiao and a group of friends on two occasions claiming she also went out with her other leading men including (the late) Fernando Poe Jr. To her, it was “no big deal” even as she appealed to media not to be malicious. The attractive actress showed her concern over the damage it could cause in the relationship between Pacquiao and his charming wife Jinkee. Ara Mina was quoted as giving Jinkee some advice which was that she should get used to gossip because Manny is a showbiz personality. Of course in the Philippine context, its grist for the rumor mill. Pacquiao was clearly peeved over the rumors linking him to Ara Mina when we met last Monday at the Wild Card Gym of former business manager Rod Nazario in BF Homes, Paranaque. His main concern, as a gentleman, was how Ara Mina was reacting to the stories. He said “I feel sad and disappointed that she has been dragged into this.” But more than that Pacquiao said “I feel ashamed and have not even spoken to her. Its not right. We are only making a movie together and to think otherwise is unfair to the lady.” The lady whom Pacquiao was actually having problems with was his wife Jinkee. The newspaper reports were obviously getting to her, no matter what . The situation was compounded by reports of his gambling and late nights playing pool at the air-conditioned "One Side" venue in Mabini owned by a Japanese and where he is reported to have lost a tidy sum to top woman player Naomi Inoue as well as his losses playing poker at Casino Filipno. Jinkee, like any wife and mother, wanted to rein in her husband knowing full well the sacrifices he had to make when training for a fight and the fights themselves in one of the most exciting and tough divisions in boxing. Manny had earlier tried to resolve his personal problems by following Jinkee to Cebu last month. Upset and annoyed she had decided to spend some time in the comforting arms of her mother. According to "Wakee" Salud, Manny and Jinkee talked but he didnt know whether their problems were resolved. Pacquiao eventually left for Los Angeles. It was only then that Jinkee arrived in Manila to attend to the schooling of their two sons who have been enrolled at the high-end and expensive Brent School in Santa Rosa, Laguna where Pacquiao purchased an eight room house in upscale Brentville. Insiders informed us that Jinkee was not easy to appease this time around and Pacquiao, apparently realizing the importance of his marriage and the stability and future of his family of two boys and a girl, flew home to straighten out their lives. Pacquiao told widely read columnist and boxing analyst Quinito Henson basically the same thing he told us and that is that the rumors were “hurting his family” but that he would never allow anybody to destroy what he had worked so hard to build. Joson reflected Pacquiao’s concern that “at the time he needed his wife’s support during a fight, there was a misunderstanding.” He said Manny always wanted to “set aside family problems when a fight was near so that everybody would support him because it was difficult for him to train and fight if he was troubled by family strife.” There are indications that Pacquiao’s decision to train in the country was partly to satisfy Jinkee who will also accompany him when he leaves for the US two weeks before the Barrera fight so he, according to Joson, “will be relaxed and at ease.” In the end Joson said “these problems are natural and its no big deal” even though there appears to be a mistaken public perception that the couple always have problems. Joson pronounced that “everything is okay” which is something we were also able to initially confirm through people who are close to Jinkee. In fairness to Pacquiao’s wife she has always been conscious of the fact that Manny needs peace of mind when training especially for such a big, multi-million dollar rematch against Barrera and she has tried to provide that. We spoke to Jinkee yesterday afternoon like we would do to a daughter because she has always – like Manny - been nice and honest with us. She said they “have no problems and everything is fine.” When we told her that the rumors about Ara Mina were not true and she shouldn’t believe everything she hears or reads, Jinkee replied “I know. I don’t believe the rumors.” We even agreed, at the end of our conversation, to fly to Cebu with her sometime next week to visit Manny and see how he’s doing. To be continued ... Click here to view a list of other articles written by Ronnie Nathanielsz.  |
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