IT is now time to heap praise on The Other One.
The One, of course, is Manny Pacquiao, now a seven-time world champion in seven different weight divisions.
The Other One is none other than Freddie Roach, the American trainer of The One.
Manny Pacquiao could not have reached the apex of his career without Freddie Roach.
Now, if there are still doubters out there as to who could be the greatest fighter of all time, shut up.
Pacquiao should be it, is it.
I guess, Muhammad Ali has moved over—graciously, I believe—and has relinquished the throne to The One without a fight.
Ali’s too gentleman a dude as to question Pacquiao’s rise to the top.
Legends know immediately their kind when they see one.
And no, it is not a question of who is trying to be generous here.
Ali will be the first person to say I’m through with my reign.
By all means, let The New One in, please?
Pacquiao has earned the throne fair and square.
He didn’t covet Ali’s scepter.
By consistently piling up one title after another, it would soon become inevitably obvious that, yes, Pacquiao has arrived.
From a skinny 105-pounder in 1995, he ballooned to 145 lbs and, in a 14-year span, collected seven championship belts along the way.
Nobody else has done that.
And make no mistake about it: He could not have done that without The Other One, Freddie Roach.
Pacquiao was an ex-champ (1998 world flyweight king at 112 lbs) when he shacked up with Roach in 2001.
Pacquiao went to Roach at Roach’s Wild Card Gym in L.A. one morning and said, “I am looking for a trainer.”
Pacquiao found not only a trainer but a father.
“In Pacquiao, I found a son,” said Roach, a nondescript boxer who rose to become the sport’s greatest trainer ever.
In eight years from 2001, Roach, now 39, made Pacquiao the winner of six more world crowns in six different weight classifications.
I have yet to see one achieving that milestone.
Angelo Dundee made Ali a three-time world heavyweight champion from the Sixties to the Seventies.
That is no mean feat, either, but anytime, that would pale in comparison with Pacquiao’s 7 of 7.
All because of The Other One. Largely.
