LOS ANGELES – Manny Pacquiao stood near a thin, rectangular crate almost as tall as the legendary, 5-5 1/2 Filipino boxer.
It was a week before he was set to return to the boxing ring at 46 against reigning WBC welterweight champion Mario Barrios in Las Vegas on Saturday, July 19.
Inside the Wild Card boxing gym, where Pacquiao has trained for virtually every fight of his storied career, someone tore away construction paper from the thin crate and revealed the contents.
It was a framed photo of Pacquiao standing next to his longtime trainer, Freddie Roach.
Pacquiao beamed, and with surprise said, “For me?’ According to the photographer, Miguel Salazar, the boxer had been asking for a copy of the photo for more than a year. When Pacquiao realized it was for him, he embraced Roach.
Roach has joked that he and Pacquiao have been together longer than most married couples. Thirty years and counting.
‘Teamwork,” Pacquiao explained of the relationship. ‘Respect.”
Now, the boxer and trainer are trying to pull off something unprecedented.
On Saturday, Pacquiao (62-8-2, 39 KOs) can become the first fighter to win a world title after being inducted into the International Boxing Hall of Fame.
Pacquiao, 46, was inducted in June. Roach, 65, was inducted in 2012. But the venerated boxer and trainer will head to the fight as underdogs – and for good reason.
Pacquiao, the only boxer to win titles in eight divisions, is 16 years older than Barrios, 30, and has not fought professionally in almost four years. He lost that bout to Yordenis Ugas by unanimous decision, and a year ago, he looked unimpressive during an exhibition against kickboxer named Rukiya Anpo.
Roach has lived with Parkinson’s disease for almost 40 years, and his symptoms have worsened to the point where Pacquiao fears hitting Roach full force when he works the mitts, a staple of training for boxers.
Yet, with uncharted territory looming, Pacquiao and Roach stand side-by-side.
Look who’s here: Roach rekindles training
In mid-May and on short notice, Pacquiao and a small entourage walked into Wild Card, Roach’s gym, according to Sean Gibbons, Pacquiao’s manager.
Video captured Pacquiao embracing Roach and holding on even when a smiling Roach tried to let go. Roach said he knew Pacquiao had agreed to fight Barrios but was surprised when Pacquiao said he wanted to hit the padded mitts – a staple for boxers – and their work began.
The first time in four years.
“Everyone was just kind of quiet and emotional,” Marie Spivey, Roach’s wife, told USA TODAY Sports. ‘It was like everyone was on the verge of tears.”
It’s a relationship that has endured strain.
In 2017, after Pacquiao lost to Australian Jeff Horn by unanimous decision, Roach suggested Pacquiao, then 38, should consider retirement.
Instead, Pacquiao left Roach.
Before his next fight, Pacquiao trained with longtime friend and assistant trainer Buboy Fernandez. Roach was hurt because he learned of Pacquiao’s decision not from the boxer but from media reports, according to his wife, Spivey.
‘And Freddy’s feelings, they don’t get hurt like that because he’ll be the first one to say, fighters come and go,” Spivey said. ‘With Manny, it was different.”
Fighting without Roach for the first time since his pro debut in 1995, Pacquiao beat Lucas Matthysse by seventh-round TKO. Then, he returned to Wild Card, resumed his work with Roach and the duo was clicking again.
At 40, Pacquiao beat Adrien Broner by unanimous decision. Later that year, Pacquiao fought Keith Thurman, then the reigning WBA super welterweight champion, and at 40 became the oldest boxer to win a welterweight world title.
But the loss to Ugas in 2021 sent Pacquiao into retirement and back to the Philippines, where he’d won a Senate seat in 2016. He launched a campaign for the presidency two months later after losing to Ugas, and he placed third in the 2022 election. In May, Pacquiao ran for Senate again and finished well out of the running for one of 12 spots.
Then it was back to Wild Card. And on to uncharted territory.
Pacquiao: A better person when he’s boxing
After working together for two weeks starting in May, Roach said, it became clear he’d be training Pacquiao for the Barrios fight. Less clear was how, eight years after suggesting Pacquiao should consider retiring, Roach agreed to train a 46-year-old boxer who has not fought in four years.
‘I talked to his wife, and his wife was always against him fighting,’ Roach said. ‘This is the first time ever that she told me she wanted him to fight. Very badly.”
”He’s a better person (when he’s boxing),” Roach said Pacquiao’s wife told him.
Gibbons, Pacquiao’s manager, cited Al Haymon, founder of Premier Boxing Champions.
‘All this stuff going on in boxing, you see all these big fights,” Gibbons said. ‘You see all this money thrown around. Only one guy stepped up with an offer again, and that was Al Haymon. …”
Haymon began lining up fights for Pacquiao after the loss to Horn, and Gibbons speculated how working with Haymon for his whole career would have impacted the boxer.
‘He probably wouldn’t be fighting because he wouldn’t need to,” Gibbons said. ‘But I’m saying he needs to. He wants to.”
Ultimately, Pacquiao said, the decision was up to him.
“One thing that I remember (Roach) told me is you can manage your body and (determine) if you can still fight or not,” Pacquiao said.
On Wednesday, Pacquiao visited the Raiders’ facility near Las Vegas. Roach was there too. They’ll be together yet again Saturday night at the MGM Grand Garden Arena, where Pacquiao will be fighting for the 16th time, and Roach again in his corner.
That’s how it’ll end, too — regardless of how the fight ends.