Pacquiao Touches Down in L.A., Leaving Behind a Political Firestorm

According to the Manila Times, Manny Pacquiao was scheduled to arrive in Los Angeles on Saturday, July 3, to begin training for his Aug. 21 match with Errol Spence Jr, but he never made it. A passenger on his plane had a medical emergency which forced an unscheduled stop-over in Tokyo. The plane then returned to Manila because it wouldn’t have arrived in Los Angeles before midnight and planes from the Philippines are not allowed to land at LAX between midnight and 6 am.

Senator Manny was one of 187 passengers on the original flight. The individual with the medical emergency isn’t believed to be a member of his team. Pacquiao arrived in Los Angeles a day late, but presumably none the worse for wear.

Until the match draws near, Pac-Man will have fewer distractions in the U.S. than he would have had in his home country. In the week before his departure, his snit with President Rodrigo Duterte was all over the news.

Pacquiao and Duterte are members of the same political party and have long been considered close allies. However, Pacquiao’s recent comment that corruption has increased three-fold since Duterte took office spoke to a breach between them. Duterte responded that if Pacquiao believed that to be true, then he had an obligation to stay in the country and investigate it. “I would say you are sh**,” Duterte was quoted as saying. “Comply first with your duty as Senator (before running off to resume your boxing career).”

The brouhaha reinforced the opinion that Pacquiao intends to run for President of the Philippines next year. By law, Duterte, 76, is restricted to one six-year term; his term expires in June 2022.

Duterte has floated the idea of circumventing the term limit by running for vice-president which would make him (wink, wink) the power behind the throne. Rumor has it that he is pushing Davao City Mayor Sara Duterte-Carpio to throw her hat in the race. She is his daughter. If Pacquaio does indeed take a stab at the Presidency, and if he wins the endorsement of his party, it now seems far-fetched that he would keep Duterte close at hand in some official capacity.

“As the rift drags on,” wrote Manila Times journalist Tita C. Valderama, “voters will come to realize that (neither of them) are the kind of leaders the country needs and the brand of leadership is not what we deserve.”

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Manny Pacquiao, a 42-year-old father of five, is the only boxer to have held world titles in four of the eight classic weight divisions. His bout with Errol Spence Jr, which will be at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, will be his 26^th pay-per-view bout.

Two full years will have elapsed since Pacquiao last stepped in the ring. In the interim, the WBA named him its welterweight “champion in recess.” According to Mike Coppinger of The Athletic, the organization is considering reinstating Pacquaio whose title has since passed to Yordenis Ugas who claimed the vacant strap with a split decision over Abel Ramos in September of last year. Ugas wouldn’t actually be defrocked, but reclassified as the organization’s “super” welterweight champion.

The oddsmakers currently have Errol Spence listed as a 5/2 favorite. If history is any guide, those odds will nick down as casual fans put their coin on Manny, only to spike up sharply in the final hours of betting.

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