LOS ANGELES ? He sat quietly in a far corner of the gym wearing a white crew neck shirt and a dark-colored jogging pants while twiddling with his smart phone on a sunny Thursday afternoon at the Wild Card Boxing Club in Hollywood.
In one instance the gym?s resident bouncer cum parking lot attendant admonished him for filming a sparring session and the poor fellow, meek as a lamb as always, smiled, apologized and slipped his high-tech gadget inside his pocket.
Almost nobody knew who he was until a nosy Manila-based scribe, who had covered some of his fights, approached him and the two relived the good old days ? a decade and a half ago ? when he was the face of Philippine boxing, and not the fighter whose sparring he tried to record via his phone.
Luisito Espinosa, almost broke and whose wife left him for another man many years ago in San Francisco, has been asked by Manny Pacquiao to just hang with him.
Pacquiao is aware of the misfortune that struck the 44-year-old Espinosa, who has been staying in Pacquiao?s apartment unit at The Palazzo the last two weeks.
?Sabi ni Manny mag-stay muna ako sa kanya,? said Espinosa, world bantamweight champion from 1989 to 1991 and world featherweight king from 1995 until 1999, and regarded as one of the finest Filipino fighters ever.
So, the last 14 days, Espinosa has been joining Pacquiao in his morning workouts and goes to the gym with him in the afternoon as his benefactor is revving up for next week?s showdown with Tim Bradley at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas.
Espinosa, who logged a record of 47-13-7 with 26 knockouts at the end of his career in 2005, has an extra-special description of the extraordinary fighter.
?Ibang klaseng bala ?yan,? said Espinosa, stressing that Pacquiao is like a bullet that is made for extra-special needs.
?Hindi 9mm o kaya ay .45 caliber,? he exclaimed. ?Basta?t ibang klase ?yan.?
