Manny Pacquiao dismissed the thought, much the same way he did many of his opponents on the way to winning world titles in eight different weight categories.
“Ayokong isipin ‘yan,” said Pacquiao on video chat with the Manila Bullletin late Tuesday, his eyes squinting and his face crumpled at the thought of stepping into the ring and fighting in front of an empty arena.
It is clear Pacquiao is bothered by the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic not only because he couldn’t attend to those in dire need of assistance. Something else has him distraught.
With practically all sports on hold until health experts issue an advisory saying that the world has flattened the curve, Pacquiao appears to agonize over the dire prospect.
After all, there has been talk that some sports, including boxing, might experiment on staging events behind closed doors once everyone gets the all-clear.
Pacquiao, whose fighting style is crowd-pleasing, insists it is something he never dreamt of happening.
“Never pumasok sa isipan ko na mangyayari ito,” said Pacquiao, 41, whose last fight was in July last year in Las Vegas.
In that bout, Pacquiao handed American Keith Thurman his first loss at the MGM Grand with 11,400 in attendance.
Pacquiao’s fights have always been prime events, go-to-places of celebrities from showbiz, politics and sports.
In 2010, Pacquiao fought and outclassed Ghanaian Joshua Clottey in front of 37,000 in March at the Cowboys Dtafium (now AT&T Stadium) in Dallas, Texas.
Nine months later, Pacquiao returned to the same venue and his beatdown of Mexican Antonio Margarito drew almost 42,000.
The pacesetter remains Pacquiao’s megabuck matchup with Floyd Mayweather in 2015 when more than 16,000 attended at the MGM Grand and the ticket sales alone hitting more than $70 million.
Before the pandemic, Pacquiao was being targeted to return to the ring in July.
But with the US still grappling with the virus, so is the rest of the world and it doesn’t appear as if Pacquiao might even get to fight in August or September.
There are those who even theorize that 2020 is already done.
Pacquiao, however, is keeping his fingers crossed that the dust will eventually settle so “everybody can go back to their normal lives.”
To keep himself busy and in shape despite the inactivity, Pacquiao has been working out almost daily, engaging in almost every training routine from shadowboxing to hitting the heavy bag aside from doing plyometrics.
