On Saturday at 8:05 PM, Congressman Manny Pacquiao landed at LAX airport on Philippine Airlines Flight 102, (only almost two weeks after he was originally expected to arrive; that?s Pacquiao time for you) and this Monday began training in his familiar haunts of the Wild Card Gym with his famed trainer Freddie Roach for the fourth installment of the Juan Manuel Marquez series.
Skipping on a return match against Timothy Bradley, who became only second man since 2005 to register a win against Pacquiao, the Pac Man will log another twelve or less, (who are we kidding, they all go twelve, right?) against JMM with the thoughts that the world already saw who the real winner was, (couldn?t we debate the winner of Pac-Marquez I, II and III til? the sun rises as well?) so Team Pacquiao tabbed Marquez for another 36 minutes of fistic action?
Oh, you don?t care for a fourth installment, and won?t be watching on December 8 when HBO PPV telecasts Pac-Mar IV?
Well, we all told ourselves just that for Pac-Mar III, and the match still did a mil? plus PPV?s.
We should just face it; Pacquiao is akin to a Rob Deniro or Johnny Depp film, you simply aren?t NOT going to watch that performer perform.
So are you ready to fall in love with Pacquiao all over again?
Along with Pacquiao?s hefty, record eight division title winning and HOF stats, comes a joyful, almost shy and un-boastful presence with a playful, kind smile that has transcended the fist thrower from poor Philippine to global icon. We are swooned with every smile, every punch, and every Jimmy Kimmel appearance and PPV bout just places us right back in the aura of the Pac Man, so don?t kid yourselves about this time around; we will all be watching Pacquiao/Marquez 24/7 and of course, on December 8th, boxing fans will do little else than watch Pac Man and Dinamata? throw blows.
Also boosting the ?Pacquiao presence?, (or should we say packaging it for sale) just happens to be the greatest boxing promoter who ever lived. A short remembrance of his long resume will back that up, no problem.
The legendary Bob Arum, who could sell an air conditioner to a polar bear, has before given us fights against opponents to which the hard core fan had not approved, (Clottey, Margarito, Mosley, to name a few, as well as Pac-Mar III) and alas, we all still tuned in and embraced yet another round of Pac Fever.
Arum now gives us part four of an epic rivalry and lets not kid ourselves, Pacquiao is going to charm us into it, and Arum will again sell-out the MGM Grand and sell a million plus pay-per-views in what can already be considered a successful promotion with the fight still a month-and-change away.
And you can take that to the bank.
Trust me, Team Pacquiao and all involved will.
THE ROACH SLUMP; NOTE FROM PAC; THE PAC FADE
In the past year, 2011 Hall of Fame entrant and multiple Trainer of the Year winner has been in a sort of slump when it comes to his fighters winning, starting with a controversial W over Marquez in ?III?, Amir Khan?s decision loss to Lamont Peterson followed by a KO loss to Danny Garcia and JCCJ?s (yeah, I?m back to not writing out his full name again) decision loss to Sergio Martinez in September.
It?s been a rough year W wise for Roach, who has been logging more Trainer of the Year awards than he has wall space for, so will the ship be righted on December 8th?
If Pacquiao?s intentions serve true, Roach could be back in the win column come December 9th.
It was reported that during the kickoff media tour for the fight, Pacquiao wrote on a napkin four words, ?We need a knockout?, and slipped it to Roach.
?What I?m trying to do in this fight is end any doubts,? Pacquiao told Yahoo! Sports this week. ?I worked on the conditioning so hard so I could do whatever I need to do in my fight. My opponent is claiming he won the fight the last time, so I want to give a knockout so the people know for sure who won this one.?
Now, give me a dollar for every time we?ve heard a fighter say he?s looking for the knockout and we could assist the flailing economy, but there is a reality that both Pacquiao and Marquez have logged many, many, warrior type rounds in their decades of fisticuffs, and age is undefeated in the boxing ring. (Someone go remind the other No. 1 P4P fighter of that as well.)
Roach, who was a little perturbed that Pacquiao had showed up weeks later than originally planned for this camp, but those feelings quelled once he placed his customized ?Freddie? and ?Roach? mitts and fielded punches from his most prized pugilist.
?I definitely was a little concerned why he wasn?t here, because he was the one who said he?d be here the whole time,? Roach said. ?But he was clearly working in the Philippines. He was tanned and dark skinned, so that showed me he was doing his running, putting the hours in.
?We did 10 rounds on the mitts today and he went hard. So whatever concerns I had, they were put to rest once I saw where he was with his conditioning.?
Since Pacquiao?s record making ascent starting in 2008 where he boldly climbed up weight divisions and procured more championships in different weight classes than any other boxer in history, we have bore witness to history in the making as the Pac Man will go down as the most accomplished of this generation and makes a case against any other generation as well.
Time has past, legs get cramped (Pacquiao in the Mosley and Bradley fights), and ultimately, the sand runs from the top to the bottom. We?ve seen it countless times; time befalls all great fighters. Every fighter fades, from generation to generation.
Pacquiao still has some greatness left.
We all had better watching, because greatness goes fast and is slow to return in the squared circle.
