Class is in session

Manny Pacquiao, left, and Keith Thurman meet face to face after tipping the scales during the official weigh-in. CONTRIBUTED PHOTO

LAS VEGAS—All his life, Manny Pacquiao always had to prove himself. This time, he stands in front of a fighter searching for validation. And Pacquiao hopes to teach Keith Thurman a neat lesson on how to achieve it.

Pacquiao takes on the 30-year-old unbeaten champion Thurman for the WBA welterweight unified title at MGM Grand Arena here on Saturday (Sunday morning in Manila) and will try to stop a foe eager to cement his stardom with a victory over a legend.

“It’s been a buildup and a progression my whole career toward this moment on Saturday night,” Thurman said. “This really is the outcome of an individual living out their dream.”

Thurman better come prepared.

“It’s gonna be a good fight,” Pacquiao said. “I had a great training camp. Absolutely I am so prepared for this fight. I think this is one of my best conditions I [have been in]. It’s all set for tomorrow.”

“Tomorrow night, class is in session,” said trainer Freddie Roach, who served as consultant to chief Pacquiao trainer Buboy Fernandez. “I hope Keith Thurman studied hard because Professor Pacquiao gives very hard tests.”

Both fighters breezed through Friday’s weigh-in at MGM Grand’s Garden Arena, checking in at 146.5 pounds.

Boxing’s Hall of Fame is already warming a seat for Pacquiao, but the Filipino ring icon feels like he has to prove himself again, if only to silence doubters who think he is no longer the division-hopping, foe-crushing speed demon who punched his way to a record eight division crowns.

“So I have to prove something this time. [I’m] 40, [but] I’m not thinking about my age. I’m thinking about what I can do for the fans,” Pacquiao said.

The fighting senator has battled doubters all his life, starting way back when he used boxing to pummel his way out of abject poverty. Hungry for success, he faced questions at each turn—in boxing, pro basketball, show business and politics.

His answer each time was to buckle down to work.

Thurman is eager to learn that same path to greatness. He has not hid his intention to use the Pacquiao fight to lay claim to a place among the sport’s greats.

“I’m striving for greatness,” Thurman said. “Fighting a great fighter, a legend in the sport, my moments is here; my moment is now. [On] Saturday night, all I can do is do my best.”

Not only does Thurman have a lot more to prove, he’s putting a lot more at stake than the super WBA welterweight crown.

Thurman is undefeated in 29 fights, knocking out 22 opponents along the way. And after an uninspiring, narrow win over Josesito Lopez in January, that undefeated record remains his best bargaining chip when negotiating for big-payday fights.

Pacquiao, meanwhile, just wants to continue applying gloss to a career whose key numbers, 61-7-2 with 39 knockouts, don’t do justice to what he has accomplished in boxing.

“I’m still okay. I can still fight. My body’s reacting well. My mind and everything is fine. And that’s a big favor from God. This is a blessing,” Pacquiao said.

He has altered his training somewhat, listening to his body more and penciling rest days during camp.

But Fernandez and Roach don’t see that much change in the finished product. He’s still fast, he still packs power. He still weaves in and out of angles in ways that will leave opponents perplexed. And if things go according to plan, the words he uttered in the early phase of training may prove prescient.

“Patulugin natin ’yan (let’s knock him out),” Pacquiao said after rehearsing a combination with Fernandez.

Even bookmakers aren’t betting against that.

What started out as a 4-1 line that Pacquiao can score a knockout against the hard-punching Thurman has dropped to a 3-1 payoff.

Despite now being the money favorite for Saturday’s fight, it is clear Pacquiao is the outlier in a different time. And he needs to stay relevant in the rapidly changing landscape strewn with many young, hungry and talented warriors wanting to become the next boxing megastar.

Winning over Lucas Matthysse last year, and Adrien Broner in January, bolstered Pacquiao’s stock once again. A spectacular Pacquiao win here will extend his career further and increase the possibility of third fight before the year is over.

And it might coax Floyd Mayweather Jr. out of retirement and into a repeat of their 2015 megafight that was said to have earned $600 million.