Manny Pacquiao was lacing up his trainers, already dressed in his jet-black running outfit ready to head out from his apartment on Wilshire Boulevard for his morning training session on Thursday when his phone rang.
He pressed the answer button after five rings and greeted the caller, who was thousands of miles away in Manila, itching to get the latest on the eight-division champion’s buildup for next month’s bold bid to become a world champion at age 46.
“I was about to go out,” he told the caller.
But Pacquiao stayed on the line and provided the inquisitive scribe details of his preparation for the 19 July clash with World Boxing Council welterweight title of Mario Barrios in Las Vegas.
Likewise, he assured everyone who has expressed concern over this rather ambitious task of toppling Barrios, a young and fresh rival who towers over Pacquiao at six feet tall.
Pacquiao swears he understands where they’re coming from but insists that his long layoff — almost four years — will work to his advantage.
“That’s four years of pure rest (from professional boxing),” Pacquiao, a pro since 1995, said a month before tangling with the heavily-favored Barrios at the MGM Grand.
And asked about the wide age difference, the one thing that worries his fans and the boxing world, Pacquiao believes the 16-year difference doesn’t bother him.
“I was 41 when I fought (and beat) Keith Thurman in 2019,” he said, his voice oozing with optimism.
Not only that.
“He (Thurman) was 29 and he was undefeated,” said Pacquiao, who last fought in August 2021 in a losing stand against Yordenis Ugas of Cuba at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.
Pacquiao, meanwhile, ramped up his sparring by going up against three different guys at the Wild Card Boxing Club in Hollywood under the watchful eyes of Freddie Roach and the all-Filipino backup training crew.
“The Wild Card is on fire,” exclaimed MP Promotions head Sean Gibbons from Los Angeles.
The interest on Pacquiao remains high and the crowds that regularly show up in his morning runs at Griffith Park is proof that “Manny mania is very much alive,” Gibbons said.
Even the complex where the Wild Card is located — on Vine Street near Santa Monica Boulevard — has been teeming with people wanting to catch a glimpse of Pacquiao.
But the happiest so far is Tina, the owner of the Thai restaurant Pacquiao and his entourage go to right after the afternoon training session.
“When Manny walked inside the Thai restaurant, Tina didn’t see him as Manny Pacquiao but as Jesus Christ,” Gibbons said, noting how the establishment has been cashing it in since Pacquiao’s arrival a month ago.
“Tina can pay off her mortgage the next two years,” added Gibbons.