By Steve Kim
For his upcoming contest versus WBC lightweight champion David Diaz, Manny Pacquiao has not only done his requisite roadwork, he has also added to his frequent flier miles. From Chicago and San Francisco to San Antonio and Phoenix, he has traveled near and far to help promote his event. And why shouldn't he? After all, with the deal he made with Bob Arum, his company, Manny Pacquiao Promotions, gets a cut of the action.
Nowadays, most fighters just participate in a conference call and the final press conference the final Wednesday before the fight. But Pacquiao has been obligated go through various open workouts, autograph sessions and pep rallies during his days off the past month or so. He's pounded the pavement like a politician.
Two weeks before his scheduled appointment at the Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas, Pacquiao would host a meet-and-greet at the Historic Filipinotown in Los Angeles. It was billed as an open workout, but he and his trainer Freddie Roach opted to go through an early morning sparring session at the Wild Card Boxing Club instead before making the short drive over. On a warm, sunny afternoon, he would sign autographs and pose for pictures with a few hundred of his adoring Filipino fans. They didn't seem to mind that 'the Pac Man' arrived about an hour late or that he would not be breaking a sweat for them. The chance to be around their idol seemed to be enough.
"It's a lot of work, but it's part of our fight to promote the fight. I like it," he would tell Maxboxing at the Little Philippines Lake Street Park that day.
A few days earlier, he and his team had made the two hour drive to San Diego to meet with the media and fans. Wednesday, which is his usual day off from hard training, was designated as the day that Pacquiao would promote his fight.
"I'm enjoying it," said Pacquiao of seeing his fans and admirers, "and it gives me more inspiration to do hard work everyday and to do my best in the fight."
But the question is, while Diaz has taken part in his share of the promotion, Pacquiao is the one who is expected to shoulder most of the load, so with the frequent breaks in training and all the travel, is there any chance that Pacquiao is not fully focused on the actual fight?
"No," says his trainer, Roach. "He's focused. The thing is, Manny gets motivated for everybody. He's been training really hard and we had five really good sparring partners, southpaws, all new guys, fresh guys."
Jet-lag has not been a problem.
"He actually sleeps well on planes," Roach says of his fighter. "Lucky him. He was a little sluggish today; I think it was because of the travel and so forth and just the schedule."
Roach admits to being a bit weary. Being a trainer, he'd rather just spend his days at his gym and focus in on the fight. And it's his job to worry about how these extracurricular activities will affect his fighter on June 28th. On many occasions, it's the little things that are the difference between winning and losing.
"Getting ready for big fights like this, it's tough to miss days," laments Roach, who has dutifully accompanied his fighter to all the promotional events.
But the reality is that if they were facing a Juan Manuel Marquez, these days would not be taken off. But because it's Diaz, who is thought of as tough, but limited, grinder who is a heavy underdog, barnstorming and banging the drums is a necessity. This is not a fight that will sell itself.
Through it all, Pacquiao has been unwavering in his commitment.
"Manny's sensational,” said Arum. “He’s a people person, and he is really going out, having the people touch him. I mean he really loves this. We're doing it in a way that it interferes very, very little, if any, with his training. Everything is cleared through Freddie. It's worked very well.”
Of course, it helps that Pacquiao has a financial interest is this pay-per-view event.
"It depends on the fighter," said Arum. "If a fighter has the incentive to economically do it, obviously, it's easier to get him to do it. But some of these fighters are so extroverted that they love doing it, even if they're not going to make a nickel. I remember when we did Hagler-Leonard and Marvin was on percentage and Ray was on a flat and Marvin refused to go out on tour and Ray would go with me on all the stops because he loved it.
"On the other hand, there are fighters, who, whatever the incentive is, refuse to cooperate and to really work on the promotion."
These tours are valuable because it may be the only way to entice the newspaper and general media to cover the fight. You can probably count on one hand how many of the major dailies have a regular boxing beat.
“Try getting an article on anything in boxing out of a Bay Area paper. It's impossible," said Arum. "Well, when Manny and David were there we had articles from every single paper and in some papers we got two articles. Some of the papers are even sending their writers to the fight now. That never, ever, would've happened if we hadn't had done this."
It can't be cheap doing all this, considering the rising price of gas, booking flights and hotels, renting out available space, and obtaining permits to hold such gatherings.
"We budget for it, and we take it away from the nonsense. We found we were spending more on advertising than we really needed. And we took it away from the advertising budget and threw it into the promotional budget," said Arum, who has also planned a pubic press conference out on the Santa Monica Pier today. "Years ago, during the closed-circuit days, I would spend virtually no money on advertising and a ton of money on promotion and that's what I'm getting back to. More of a balance."
