LOS ANGELES – Whether Manny Pacquiao gave anyone notice he was coming home to Wild Card Boxing Club last month doesn’t matter.
As he climbed the steps to the top of the entrance, he saw his longtime trainer Freddie Roach. They embraced. And without words, it was obvious. It was time to work again, to launch the pursuit of another WBC belt, just like that green flyweight belt Pacquiao first won in Thailand way back in 1998.
“We’ve seen vintage Manny Pacquiao – training, sparring, preparation,” Pacquiao’s longtime advisor Sean Gibbons said Wednesday as Pacquiao effectively marked the halfway point of his training camp by hosting his media day at the gym.
“Fight night’s fight night. That’s the big unknown everyone is coming to see. Does he still have it? I compare Tom Brady a lot to Manny – the way they’ve aged, how they take care of themselves. The number may be 46, but the body’s in its 20s.”
The sentimental vibes run deep for Pacquiao, 62-8-2 (39 KOs), as he gets nearer to fighting 30-year-old WBC welterweight champion Mario Barrios Jnr, 29-2-1 (18 KOs), on Prime Video and pay-per-view at MGM Grand in Las Vegas.
There have been so many epic triumphs for record eight-division champion Pacquiao at that venue, and if he wins here again, weeks after being inducted into the International Boxing Hall of Fame, a case for labeling him as the greatest fighter of all time could be debated.
“That’s not for me to decide, that’s for the fans. I don’t want to raise my own chair,” Pacquiao told BoxingScene Wednesday.
He said he’s satisfied with the work he’s displayed since returning to California.
“I’m happy with these first 30 days I’ve been in L.A. We’ve reached the level we wanted to accomplish,” he said. “Right now – [through] this weekend and next – we’re in heavy training. Then, we’ll wind down.
“Most fighters come back at like 50-60 percent condition, just to come back. I don’t want that. I want 100 percent.”
Pacquiao sought to showcase that for the cameras arranged along the ring, hammering his mitt man’s pads, flashing his signature hand and foot speed and smiling nearly throughout.
“He turned the corner. He’s been getting fit and ready for this big push of now – we’re going to spar 8, 10 and 12 rounds starting today,” Gibbons said.
Recently, Gibbons asked young welterweight sparring partner Saul Bustos, 15-2-1 (8 KOs), for an honest assessment of the legendary champion.
“[Pacquiao] rocked me. He was over here, over there,” Bustos said.
“That’s vintage Manny,” Gibbons said. “The power and excitement are still there. He doesn’t have to be doing this. He’s not here for the money. He’s here because he likes to compete. He wants to be at the highest level. And he tells us, ‘This is what I’ve done my whole life.’”
The return occurred because Barrios, a forward fighting champion, was there to go after.
“The opportunity to fight the guy he wanted, at the MGM Grand – the stage where Manny first came on to the stage .. the world goes full circle, they say. Well, here we are full circle, and I’m getting chills thinking about it,” Gibbons said.
Pacquiao has experienced the rigors long enough to know when to press forward, when to rest and how to regain another title.
“He manages his work. Runs the mountains, then takes it easy the rest of the day. Takes a day off if he needs it. The key to this fight is recovery,” Gibbons said. “The next 15 days will be his best days – his hardest days. The speed, the movement, the footwork – it’ll be seven full weeks of hard concentration, knowing what he needs to do. The guy is an eight-division champion.”
Pacquiao maintains his tradition of a post-training meal at Nat’s Thai Food in the strip mall below Wild Card, consuming rice, tapas meat and soup.
“Look at the smile on the guy’s face,” Gibbons says, motioning to Pacquiao’s workout. “Kobe, Jordan, Brady, Manny – they’re wired differently. They still keep the thrill of doing what they’re doing.”
As he conducted various interviews, the last questioner asked him what it feels like to know the Las Vegas sports books are expecting Barrios to knock him out.
“Really?” Pacquiao asked, grinning devilishly and pounding his taped fists together. “Watch."
Lance Pugmire is BoxingScene’s senior U.S. writer and an assistant producer for ProBox TV. Pugmire has covered boxing since the early 2000s, first at the Los Angeles Times and then at The Athletic and USA Today. He won the Boxing Writers’ Association of America’s Nat Fleischer Award in 2022 for career excellence.
