Table of Contents
For Leslie
PROLOGUE: HOLLYWOOD
AS MANNY PACMAN PACQUIAO saunters out of the locker room at the Wild Card Boxing Club in Hollywood, California, he holds out his hand, and a member of his entourage slaps a comb in it. Looking in one of the gyms many grimy mirrors, Pacquiao combs his jet-black hair, brushes off his goatee, and nods his head in self-approval. Someone slips on his watcha gold Rolex Yacht Masterand then gives him his diamond stud earring, which he puts in his left ear. The champ is ready. Several of us walk down the secret back way, out of the boxing gym, where a horde of fans lie in wait with cell phones and cameras. Manny, just one picture, pleeeeeaaase!
Pacquiao smiles brightly for a moment, but he pays the fans little attention except for a hello in the sing-songy way that Filipinos extend an English words last syllable. He gets ushered away. Pacquiaos burly security detail apologizes to the fans, Sorry folks, and then roars, We have to keep it moving! The champ is hungry.
Pacquiao is going only about forty feet away, but there is enormous urgency. It is time for the champs dinner. Sometimes he spars for thirty rounds. During training he eats five times a day, and if he doesnt get enough food the world goes haywire. (Pacquiao has trouble getting up to his new fighting weight of 147 pounds and has said that the consistent food intake can be exhausting. I was miserable when I was in the lighter weights, and I am miserable now, he laughs.) After pressing through the crowd, he jams his way into Nats Thai restaurant, his regular nightly spot. The place has orange walls and red curtains, which eager fans are always trying to peer through to get a glimpse of the worlds greatest boxer. Alex Ariza, Pacquiaos strength and conditioning coach, has already ordered dinner. It is the same at every meal night-after-night: Filipino dishes of beef, chicken, fish, soup, and rice. Spending the last four hours training harder than any athlete alive, Pacquiao lets out a deep breath and sits down at the table. The whole dinner is choreographed. The restaurants owner dramatically pushes PLAY on a remote and suddenly, the enormous flatscreen television facing Pacquiao lights up, showing a replay of one of his fifty-six professional fights. Unfolding on the screen is Pacquiao versus Jorge Eliecer Julio, circa 2002, before the PacMans popularity went global. It is an undercard clash out of Memphis when Pacquiao was eight years younger than he is now. He had ridiculous frosted hair, a wispy mustache, and weighed 120 poundsalmost 25 pounds less than what he weighs now in 2010. After Julio hits Pacquiao with an elbow and a low blow, the announcers talk about how Pacquiaos sense of sportsmanship is so deeply ingrained that he refuses to resort to dirty tactics. In the corner, between the first and second round, Pacquiaos trainer, Freddie Roach, tells him to go at Julio with a left hand after a double jab. Off the stool, Pacquiao does just that, and seven seconds into the second round Julio eats Pacquiaos left glove and falls to the canvas. Julios brain has sporadic communication with his body. Pacquiao hunts him. Thirteen seconds later, Julio gets dropped again. Pacquiao relentlessly pounds his helpless opponent, and the referee mercifully stops the fight. Pacquiao, the one sitting across from me in the restaurant, studies the replay on the flatscreen, raises his eyebrows a couple of times, and smiles. The puckish grin can change the mood of any room. It can brighten the day of a sick child or a president of a country. His tablemates see it and everyone laughs. There doesnt seem to be a shred of malice in him. A big part of Pacquiaos success, like that of Muhammad Alis, comes from his ability to enjoy himself. Although he has grand ambitionslike detailed plans on helping the rural poor of his countrymany of his outward actions resemble that of an immature prankster. One of his favorite practical jokes at Nats is sneaking a fork into his guests jacket. Then he has the restaurant owner catch the person shoplifting the silverware. The whole entourage knows its coming and looks at the guest with mock seriousness and shame. Pacquiao smiles and laughs. Theyve seen it a million times, but they still laugh.
As the food is brought to the table, ten members of his entourage mosey in for dinner. Everyone has cheap cell phones, and theyre checking text messages, occasionally looking up to chit-chat with one another. Pacquiaos on his BlackBerry, frantically checking NBA scores (he gambles a lot on basketball). The restaurant in a rundown strip mall is crowded, and the excitement of the exclusively Filipino crowd inside is off the charts. Ninety million of their fellow countrymen would die to be so close to the national icon. These lucky couple dozen people cant always contain themselves because they are close to the Inner Sanctum of Manny Pacquiao. Nats is as much a Filipino tourist stop as the Hollywood sign. With Pacquiaos $700 per day patronage, the restaurant thrives. The other Filipino diners, who often just tell the owners to charge Pacquiao for their food, come over and plead for an autograph, and they nudge Ariza, a musclebound Latino, out of the way so they can sit next to their idol. Pacquiao sees it as a necessary part of his fame. A heavily made up, middle-aged Filipina pesters Manny to endorse some sort of magical bracelet, and a womana friend from his childhoodfrom his hometown of General Santos City sits across from him. She whispers to me, He is the same Manny. Even more humble now. They laugh about old times. It is thought that Pacquiao probably suffers from attention deficit disorder (ADD) because he repeatedly shows intensity for a few minutesthe length of one roundand then he is on to something else. Pacquiao slurps some tinolang manokthe chicken-broth soup with special leaves from his native Philippines that he eats at almost every meal and which has bulked him up through seven different weight divisions, all of which he has dominated. At five feet six and 145 pounds, he is the greatest and unlikeliest pound-for-pound fighter in the world. The sodium helps him retain water, points out Ariza. Pacquiao is constantly asking his Filipino buddies to bring malunggay leaves, often sneaking them through customs, so the soups flavor is just right. Dishes are brought out one after another: beef, shrimp, rice, always rice.
When someone wants Mannys attention, they yell, Pacquiao!
Mike Tyson is on the phone.
Pacquiao! Its Mike Tyson. He would like to talk to you. And a phone is handed to him. Pacquiao seems pleased, but just about as pleased as he would be talking to the woman from his hometown. So many people want a piece of him. A few of the people around him, the people who really care about him, whisper about how his trust will bring him personal and financial ruin. The stories of his financial burdens have become legendary within his circle. Everyone takes from Manny Pacquiao, people tell me constantly. Two people that day have told me that Mannywho Time magazine named one of the worlds most influential people last yeargave an entourage member a large sum to hold for him for a few days, and the man turned around and gambled it away. Executives at Fortune 500 companies hand deliver checks to him because they worry that Pacquiaos entourage might pocket the money. Pacquiao takes a philosophical view of the thievery around him, telling me that God has given him bounty and who is Manny Pacquiao to not give Gods blessing away? When their time comes, he says, the men will face God.
