LOS ANGELES ? Manny Pacquiao, sitting at the dining room table inside his house two weeks before his Saturday fight against Keith Thurman, looked grossly overmatched.
By breakfast.
He surveyed plates of white rice, chicken and steak kebab, fried squid, sliced bananas, beef and cabbage soup, and eggplant omelet with bitter melon. Then the daily ritual commenced.
Pacquiao dug into a pile of rice as his manager, Sean Gibbons, watched the Filipino boxing star.
?Most fighters have a little piece of chicken in front of them and they look like they haven?t eaten in about a week,?? Gibbons told USA TODAY Sports. ?They look like they?re crying.??
But Pacquiao?s cooks keep piling up the Filipino food as he prepares to face Thurman in Las Vegas for the super welterweight championship in which both will have to get down to 147 pounds by the weigh-in.
?No problem,?? Pacquiao said between bites of beef kebab.
As usual.
Having turned pro as a 106-pound lightweight at 16, Pacquiao, now 40, has steadily bulked up while winning an unprecedented 12 titles in eight weight divisions. He said huge quantities of Filipino food helped fuel his rise and address a potential problem.
Because of his legendary work ethic and metabolism, Pacquiao burns massive amounts of calories during his training. He said his five-man cooking staff helps him maintain his weight. So the tradition continued at this breakfast.
Before Pacquiao started his 5-mile run up Griffith Park, followed by agility drills with a medicine ball and brutal abdominal exercises, his team of cooks was hard at work too. The flames of three grills crackled in the backyard of Pacquiao?s $3 million home with five bedrooms and five baths as the five men prepared the breakfast feast.
One stirred bulalo, a popular soup in the Philippines made by cooking beef shanks and bone marrow.
