Inside Manny Pacquiao’s Work Out

Grapevine, Texas–Boom… boom…boom. The sounds of fists pummeling some unlucky soul reverberated throughout the auditorium. It had a menacing quality that simultaneously aroused interest and chilled the spine.

But that’s the way fear works on the mind: It animates the synapses and fires them off in countless and, thus, undecipherable directions. Because the boom behind the curtain wasn’t some poor schmuck getting his face bashed in. It was just the best fighter in boxing, MANNY PACQUIAO, warming up before his open workout in advance of his Nov. 13th showdown with ANTONIO MARGARITO.

When the booming stopped and Pacquiao finally emerged from behind the curtain, he did so to an oceanic applause. Wherever the seven-time, seven-division word champ goes, his fans follow. So the large showing on Nov. 9 was expected. He took to the ring and gave them–and a platoon of international press–a rare glimpse into his training regimen.

After Pacquiao stretched with conditioning coach Alex Ariza, he gloved up for a pad-pounding session with superstar trainer Freddie Roach. As they circled the ring, Roach whispering instructions and Pacquiao firing combination punches, the rowdy crowd would blurt out instructions or requests or some odd blend of the two. “Make him go fast!” somebody yelled. “Hit Freddie!” another shouted.

Pacquiao and Roach didn’t hear any of it. They were in their own little world–one where all that exists is boxing.