Pacquiao spends his final hours in Manila coaching his basketball team. Training for his mega-fight with Floyd Mayweather awaits him in Los Angeles
MANILA, Philippines ? It?s two minutes before tip-off and both the KIA Carnival and Blackwater Elite are already on the court at San Juan Arena awaiting tipoff on Saturday, February 28. The KIA locker room has been cleared with just a few assistants remaining to clean up discarded towels and Gatorade bottles.
The 1500-strong crowd is hyped for a game between two of the lower squads in the Philippine Basketball Association, but the solitary man they came to see is nowhere in sight. KIA?s player-coach Manny Pacquiao, known primarily for his other career as an 8-division boxing champion has yet to arrive.
?Traffic,? one of his handlers explains, citing the same reason he was unable to train at his gym at MP Tower in Sampaloc, Manila, the day before.
The noise from inside the auditorium reveals that the game is already underway but the real action is happening in the hallway. Pacquiao, accompanied by a dozen or so of his entourage, makes his way through the scrum, pushing past news cameras on the way to the team?s locker room.
Minutes later, Pacquiao re-emerges from his locker room, still dressed in the pink oxford and black slacks he arrived in. There?d be no time for him to don his team?s red-and-black uniforms, shower, and change afterwards.
Two hours after the game is to conclude, at 9 pm local time, Pacquiao will board a flight to Los Angeles to report to the Wild Card Gym for the official start of training camp for his May 2 fight with Floyd Mayweather Jr.
And as Pacquiao makes his way into vision, the crowd erupts. Few of his most ardent fans pay credence to protests that he doesn?t belong in the country?s most beloved pro sports league. Chants of ?Pacquiao!? ring out through the upper deck, where there are fans who received free tickets to wish him well in his send-off game.
For Pacquiao, the 36-year-old holder of a 57-5-2 (38 knockouts) record, time management is his greatest challenge. He?s a congressman in Sarangani province. A professional basketball player. A part-time recording artist and actor. And, for the first half of this year, a co-star in the biggest boxing event of the 21st century.
?It?s not as hard as it seems,? Pacquiao?s adviser Michael Koncz says. ?Manny is very disciplined. When it?s time for boxing, he knows he has to focus.?
Koncz says geography ? training in Philippines for a fight in Asia and training in LA for a fight in Las Vegas ? is the reason for the switch in scenery. Distractions are not a concern, he says.
?His time management is very well,? says Koncz. ?If he has to focus on politics, he focuses there. Gotta focus on boxing, he does that. But I still think boxing is the enjoyment of his life. Once he gets into training camp, it just feels like he?s in a different zone.?
At halftime, with his team down 56-42, Pacquiao?s expression is pained. He hates to lose on the court, on the chess board, and in the ring with equal disdain. Yet as he makes his way back to the locker room, the questions are predictably less about basketball and more about the multi-faceted rockstar life he leads.
A series of non-answers follow.
About a proposed bill to exempt him from taxes for this fight. ?Ask my lawyer about that.?
Thoughts on his former conditioning coach Alex Ariza working with Mayweather. ?None.?
Is this your final fight? ?It is not sure.?
Afforded just a moment of his divided attention, this writer rushes in a question about whether he would set-aside his merciful, at times passive, attitude in the ring and return to the ruthless, blood-thirsty finisher he was earlier in his career.
Standing at the locker room’s threshold, Pacquiao glares at me for a moment, contemplating the best way to respond to the question that strikes right to the core of who he remains as a fighter.
He then nods solemnly, as understated as ever, and disappears behind closed doors.
