Why Manny’s hard to beat

One couldn’t help but wonder why Manny Pacquiao is still at it even as he is about to turn 47.

Not only that.

Anytime now, the eight-division legend is about to become a grandfather as the girlfriend of his son Jimuel — Carolina — is giving birth.

Recently, I had a long chat with Pacquiao’s childhood friend Buboy Fernandez, who shared some things he believes are factors behind his rise to superstardom.

“Manny is different from all the others,” Fernandez said. “He has everything that the others don’t have.”

“Other boxers train hard only whenever their trainers are present. That’s not Manny. Manny trains even without a trainer. And that’s what makes him very special.”

And that’s exactly what Pacquiao did just a couple of days after arriving in Los Angeles, doing road work at Griffith Park in the morning and setting foot at the Wild Card Boxing Club in the afternoon.

Fernandez continued: “Manny always goes the extra mile during training camp. He pushes himself to the limit while trying to find ways on how to improve his stamina.”

Pacquiao has no scheduled fight at the moment but is targeting an April 2026 rematch with Floyd Mayweather via Netflix.

Negotiations are said to be taking place, making Pacquiao excited than ever as he attempts to prove to everyone that, in his case, age is just a number.

And if a deal is put into place for this rematch, you can expect Pacquiao to distinguish himself once more given his attitude towards training.

“Even at this age, it’s hard to handle somebody like Manny Pacquiao,” Fernandez said.

Mario Barrios, much younger and fresher, found this out several months ago as he nearly lost his World Boxing Council welterweight title in their Las Vegas duel that ended on a majority draw.

“Manny just trained for two months and looked at what he did. What if we had the usual three-month camp?”

That would have been awesome.