LOS ANGELES – Call it a pilgrimage, an homage or a goodbye.
For the past several weeks, as Manny Pacquiao has returned to the routine of his demanding conditioning run up the steep climb of Los Angeles’ Griffith Park, past the famed Observatory and all the way to the Hollywood sign, he’s been joined by a cross-section of the population.
Champion fighters like Teofimo Lopez and Cris Cyborg, elite contenders including Vergil Ortiz Jnr and Emiliano Vargas, a herd of aspiring, young boxers who literally yearn to follow in his path and the general public have congregated nearly every morning at the park’s base to cheer on or run with the record eight-division champion and recent International Boxing Hall of Fame inductee.
“There’s been a lot of people out there, a lot of runners,” Pacquiao told BoxingScene Monday while laughing. “It means a lot. I appreciate it. I’m so thankful to God.”
Pacquiao, 62-8-2 (39 KOs) is 46 now, drawn to return to boxing for a chance to win another welterweight title. He’s done it four times already, the first tour dating back to his November 2009 knockout of fellow Hall of Famer Miguel Cotto.
His current target is WBC welterweight champ Mario Barrios Jnr, whom he faces July 19 on Amazon Prime Pay-Per-View and from MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada.
Barrios, 29-2-1 (18 KOs), 30, is a come-forward, nuts-and-bolts fighter. It’s believed that he is ideally suited for Pacquiao’s reliance on creative punching angles from a southpaw stance, with rapid footwork and fast, powerful hands required to complement the attack.
For all of that to work, as it did against Cotto, as it did in retiring Oscar De La Hoya and as it did in moving up in weight to defeat the monstrous Antonio Margarito more than a decade ago, Pacquiao has to prove to himself he can conquer these hills with ease.
“That’s what I’m thinking,” Pacquiao said. “And footwork is the key.”
This test, perhaps even more than the extra-long sparring sessions of recent weeks, will prove if he has the legs to produce 12 solid rounds of work at this advanced age. A successful mission will see Pacquiao join George Foreman and Bernard Hopkins as the only men in boxing history to claim a world title after their 45th birthday.
In years past, these runs were more solitary exercises. Pacquiao routinely generates an audience of friends and close followers.
What’s going on this time around is unique, an opportunity for anyone to drive over and park, to shout encouragement and – if they’re in shape – to join the pack.
Pacquiao’s career, dating to his 1995 pro debut, then to his first world title as a flyweight in 1998 and his U.S. debut [at MGM Grand] in 2001, has been one to cherish.
He engaged in four epic fights versus Mexico’s Juan Manuel Marquez, participated in the richest prize fight in history against Floyd Mayweather Jnr, returned at 40 to become champion again (a record for the welterweight division), and even retired before this comeback.
Few expected him back; to see it is to cheer it.
From the standpoint of a Hall of Fame-inducted 46-year-old returning to the ring after a four-year absence, Pacquiao needs that support and its daily injection of adrenaline to win the fight.
“Yeah, because it gives me more inspiration and encouragement beyond what I can give myself,” Pacquiao said.
He has taken to playing guitar for the throng, signing autographs, taking photos and engaging in conversation as thanks, a nod to the type of care he provided as a former congressman and senator in the Philippines.
On Monday, Pacquiao spoke to BoxingScene between sessions of the Griffith Park run and his extended sparring.
The first begets the other.
“I’m doing well. The coaches are watching me and stopping me from overtraining when they need to,” he said. “I’m landing [punches] and I’m moving well. My punches are very hard and my combinations are doing very well right now because of my speed and my footwork.
“What my coaches want to see – they’re seeing it. And I feel that way also. I can still do all the moves to set up my power.”
Still, there are questions and concerns.
There is a reason why Hopkins and Foreman comprise the very short list of fighters who’ve thrived in middle age. Their success stories are far outnumbered by the hard-to-watch beatdowns of aged champions like Joe Louis, Muhammad Ali and Mike Tyson, among countless others.
“First, I want to say thank you for your care. But I’m the one who knows my body, who feels like this and I can tell you I will bring surprises [July 19],” Pacquiao said.
Those words are rooted in what has transpired in the hills, in conquering his proving grounds.
“I’m very confident in my condition from the way I’m running through the mountains,” Pacquiao said. “It’s very hard running up those hills. My feeling throughout the years has always been the same thing – that if I can do it, then I’m ready for the fight. When I first start, it’s always really hard. But right now, it’s easy.”
In a way, the challenge of fighting Barrios at 46 is not all that different from moving up two divisions to retire De La Hoya on his stool, and leaving the merciless Margarito spread out on a hospital gurney with irreparable eye damage.
“I like being the underdog,” Pacquiao said. “What I’m trying to show is that even at [an older age], if you have discipline, you can still do it.”
As the Griffith Park turnouts have shown, that’s something the masses can relate to.
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.
