Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo is the president of the Philippines, a country with a population of over 87 million. Located in southeastern Asia, the archipelago is situated between the Philippines Sea and the South China Sea, east of Vietnam.
But it is Manny Pacquiao – who faces Erik Morales once again this Saturday night at the Thomas and Mack Arena in Las Vegas – who has truly captured the hearts, minds and undying loyalty of this developing country. For all it’s past political strife and economic struggles, Filipinos look at the ‘Pac Man’ as a bastion of hope.
What Pele was to Brazil, Wayne Gretzky to Canada and what Michael Jordan was in this country at the height of his airness, Pacquiao is every bit the icon as the aforementioned names in his native land.
It’s safe to say that since the second retirement of Puerto Rican superstar Felix Trinidad, that no boxer has enjoyed the adoration of his countrymen like Pacquiao.
His every move is followed. His every activity archived for posterity. His every endorsement taken to heart. His every bout a national gathering, where the hopes and dreams of Pinoys all over ride on his blistering two-fisted attack.
He’s an idol.
And in the Philippines that’s what he’s known as.
“Anytime I’ve traveled there with him, number one, people call him ‘Idol’; that’s their name for him, and number two, you can not go anywhere without being mobbed,” says his attorney, Nick Khan. “It’s like any US celebrity at the height of their popularity.”
His trainer, Freddie Roach, has been involved with 18 world champions, traveling the globe with numerous boxers on their home turf. But he’s never seen the level of loyalty that Pacquiao engenders from his people.
“Never,” he states. “The thing is, maybe he has no competition. But he’s the biggest thing over there; he just came out with an album and I heard it sold over a half-million copies already. I don’t know how good of a singer he is but I guess he’s the new Elvis. But whatever he does over there turns to gold.”
But with all this adulation, just how much pressure does Pacquiao feel? While other athletes play for their teams, Pacquiao fights for a country.
“That is a good question,” said Pacquiao last Saturday, as he wrapped up his training camp in Hollywood at the Wild Card Boxing Club. After contemplating the query for a second, he said, “I feel pressure now; there’s a lot of pressure on me to win this fight but I’m not nervous, just the pressure from my countrymen. But I like that, I like that inspiration. It inspires me to train hard to win the fight.”
And while the fight is being held in Las Vegas, the Thomas and Mack Arena could be transformed into ‘Lil Manila’ on Saturday night. Usually, when a foreign fighter faces a Mexican boxer on the west coast, he’s on enemy territory. But not so in this instance as Bob Arum, who is the lead promoter for this event, says that it wouldn’t surprise him to see the demographical split between the Filipinos and Mexicans to be fairly even.
Last week a Filipino patron called the Top Rank offices in Las Vegas requesting to buy 300, $300 tickets. He was told that if he wired the money, he would get his seats. Within the hour, the money was sent.
“Oh, I expect that there are a lot of Filipinos coming to the fight and they want to see it personally, our fight,” Pacquiao says with excitement. “It’s going to be an exciting fight, it’s going to be a good fight.”
Just how far does Pacquiao’s popularity span? Well, like Muhammad Ali, those who found themselves associated with the boxer enjoy a level of celebrity in the Filipino community. They become honorary Pinoys.
“I had some surgery six months ago,” recalls his manager Shelly Finkel, “and when the nurses – who were probably great anyway – found out that Manny was a client I worked with, it was like, ‘You know Manny Pacquiao!!!’
Seemingly every Filipino has an interest in Pacquiao-Morales II.
“It’s interesting,” continued Finkel, “my doorman – and I’ve been here for almost six years – I never realized he was Filipino, and the other day he says to me, ‘When are you going out to Manny’s fight?’ I said, ‘I didn’t know you were into boxing.’ He said, ‘I’m Filipino!’
“It’s just amazing, the popularity of him, it seems to have grown.”
Roach, who in addition to training Pacquiao for the past four years also helped extricate his charge from the grip of former promoter Murad Muhammad, has become a celebrated figure in that country.
“Wherever I went, people talked to me,” he said of his visits to the country. “Even last night here in America, I went to a Mexican restaurant, and five or six Mexican guys stood at this table and pointed at me; they know I’m training Pacquiao. They want Morales obviously, so it carries over everywhere. Just being around him because it’s such a big rivalry with the Mexicans and Filipinos.
“In the Philippines after Manny’s fight, for two-and-a-half hours I signed autographs. Since Manny’s so famous they give me a lot of the credit and it makes me a little famous over there also.”
But to keep his Q-rating at astronomical levels, Pacquiao can ill-afford another loss to Morales. In many respects, this could be the biggest fight of his career. A win, and he stamps himself as a truly great fighter, one that might surpass Flash Elorde as the best his country has ever produced. Another loss, and he’s just another exciting fighter with a loyal following.
“Exactly,” agreed Khan. “Because Manny believes that he lost the last fight, he’s making no excuses for it. We believe there were some distractions. Manny’s never lost two fights in a row. Granted, we had the fight with Cesar Velasquez in-between, but that was a tune-up fight. This is revenge, it means a lot.”
Pacquiao concurs with that thought.
“This is one of the biggest fights of my life on Saturday.”
Believe it or not, when they last met in March, despite Morales’ impressive resume, coming off his loss to Barrera in his previous bout they may have taken ‘El Terrible’ a bit lightly.
“I thought, he lost to Barrera, then he takes a tough fight with Pacquiao, right away, I said, ‘Oh, this guy might be just doing it for the money. It’s probably his last fight.’ I underestimated him, yes,” Roach freely admits. “Then Manny had a lot of people around him saying, ‘You beat Barrera, Barrera beat him, it should be an easy fight for you.'”
But as Joe Frazier, Ali and George Foreman proved in their first go-rounds, just because A beats B and B downs C, it doesn’t necessarily mean that A will have an easy time with C.
They committed the cardinal sin of overlooking a great warrior.
“It finally dawned on me in the dressing room when Manny was telling jokes, and he’s never like that in the dressing room, he’s always serious,” Roach remembers of that scene. “And he was laughing and telling jokes and fooling around and I said, ‘I gotta get this guy’s attention,’ so I said, ‘Manny, this is a tough fight. Let’s think about this fight.’
“But it was too late by then.”
Leading into that bout, Pacquiao was bogged down in his conflict with Muhammad, one that finally came to a head several months later when he would finally gain his freedom in court. Everything from his purse, to his comp tickets, to his rooms at the MGM Grand were in question.
“I wasn’t exactly 100-percent last March on that fight,” claims Pacquiao. “There were a lot of distractions about my training and my team. I trained hard physically, I was very fit and 100-percent conditioned, but my mind was like 40 or 50-percent conditioned.”
And who can forget ‘Glovegate’? But none of that exists ten months later.
“His tickets have already been distributed to him so he can distribute them in L.A. before he goes to Las Vegas. Another headache he doesn’t have to worry about,” said Khan last week at Pacquiao’s media day at the Wild Card, which brought about a throng of Filipino and Asian media outlets. “And his two-bedroom suite is waiting for him at the Wynn.”
He’ll also be sporting his favored Cleto-Reyes gloves when he steps in against Morales on Saturday night.
He should have no excuses or alibis this time around. He knows exactly what he’s making this time around, all his accommodations are taken care of and the circus-like atmosphere that existed for the training camp leading into his first bout with the Mexican is long gone.
As you see him working out, he looks as fast and as focused as ever. If he can’t beat him this time around, maybe he just can’t beat him.
“We’ve had our privacy,” said Roach, who believes that this camp was the best he’s ever gone through with Pacquiao. “The thing is, everything we have is here in L.A., so we didn’t go somewhere to camp. This is our camp and the thing was, Manny had a problem in here, so we had a closed gym situation. We had great sparring and he’s mentally ready for this fight.
“You’re more prepared, and when a guy beats you, there’s no better motivation than that in the world.”
IRONY
It’s funny that there were reports of Morales using Cleto-Reyes gloves during his training for this fight, because for most of his preparation for the rematch, Pacquiao had Winning gloves on his hands.
“Of course,” said Roach, “they really protect the hands.”
