LOS ANGELES ? As in the past, Manny Pacquiao came back ?home? to the Wild Card Boxing Club in Hollywood on Tuesday and paid his respects to the master, Freddie Roach.
Pacquiao had earlier planned to arrive at 1 p.m., but a few hours had already passed when the Filipino southpaw finally showed up on board his sporty black Mercedes Benz SL550 ? its roof folded neatly?with wife Jinkee on his side.
His 382-horsepower roadster was tailed by his Lincoln Navigator and two other vehicles loaded with supporters from Manila and California.
Pacquiao, who beat Mexican arch-rival Erik Morales over the weekend in Las Vegas, gave Roach a hug and the two spoke and whispered for 15 minutes, reminiscing what took place during that glorious Saturday night at the Thomas and Mack Center.
“It was a great fight,” Pacquiao told Roach as their supporters began filling up the extension area of the Wild Card digital cameras and pens at the ready.
One forty-something Filipino male who works in the downtown area said he even asked permission for his boss if it was possible to extend his lunch break and he was still present when Pacquiao arrived and walked up the steps of the famed sweat shop on Vine Street near Santa Monica to thank his Australian conditioning coach Justin Fortune as well as training assistant Macka Foley and the regulars there.
There was no trace that Pacquiao took a beating in his third fight against Morales. He had been unscathed and so was Morales though the Mexican went down three times during the three-round encounter.
While Pacquiao admitted that he felt Morales? power, he said he was not hurt at all.
“Yeah, I felt it (power) but I was not hurt,” said Pacquiao.
Ringsiders have been hyping that the Pacquiao-Morales 3 indeed lived up to its billing as it brought back memories of the 1985 bloody brawl between Marvin Hagler and Thomas Hearns at Caesars Palace.
Roach, too, admitted that the rubber match was action-packed and thrilling and was man enough to give Morales credit for putting up a brave stand.
“He showed a lot of heart and he was able to land some good shots in the third round,” said Roach, noting that when Pacquiao decked El Terrible for the second time (the first knockdown in the third round), Morales glanced at him and saw him smiling.
“When Morales was seated and he (accidentally) looked at me and he got up quickly maybe because he saw me smiling (at him),” revealed Roach with a chuckle.
Rob Peters, who serves as Pacquiao bodyguard cum parking lot attendant and gatekeeper of the Wild Card, narrated that the night after the fight, shortly after the GenSan gunner arrived in his two bedroom apartment unit at The Palazzo in La Brea, they watched the fight four times as a friend was able to copy on DVD format the HBO pay-per-view telecast.
“Manny made Erik look terrible,” said the shaven-skulled Peters, taking a different cue of Morales who is known as “El Terible.”
