MANILA, Philippines ? Twenty-one years on and the Manny Pacquiao show is still running.
The number of onlookers at his training sessions has increased since those early days, and it takes Pacquiao longer to get into third gear each time he returns to training. But when he steps on the gas for short bursts of powerful combinations on the mitts, the punches still make that familiar crack, and he growls like the young man he was when he still had something left to prove.
Familiar faces congregated Wednesday evening to watch a training session at an Elorde Gym branch in Pasay City, Philippines, just a few minutes down the street from the Philippine Senate, where Pacquiao now serves as a first-term legislator.
The 37-year-old Pacquiao is in the early stages of training for a comeback from an announced retirement which lasted shorter than some of his recent gaps between fights. He?ll face WBO welterweight titleholder Jessie Vargas on Nov. 5 at the Thomas and Mack Center in Las Vegas, the same venue where he twice knocked out Erik Morales in 2006. It?ll be his first fight outside of a casino since his 2010 win over Antonio Margarito at Cowboys Stadium.
Despite co-starring in the most financially lucrative boxing event in history last year against Floyd Mayweather Jr., and the slim prospects of a rematch, he continues to fight on, with promoter Bob Arum saying he?ll fight twice more in 2017.
Why does he do it? For the same reason many boxers find it hard to stay away. Being an ?ex? something you?ve been great at is hard to accept, and the cheers are never as loud in the memory as they are in the moment.
?I missed boxing, I grew up in boxing. I felt lonely when I stopped boxing. Boxing is my passion,? says Pacquiao.
His schedule these days as someone with a day job is similar to that of an upstart boxer who has to work a 9-to-5 while his career gathers steam. He wakes up and does roadwork around his exclusive Makati City neighborhood at 6 a.m., then heads to his senate job from 9 a.m. until 6 p.m., after which he trains.
