Back to where it all started

Philippine senator and boxing hero Manny Pacquiao, left, and Argentine WBA welterweight champion Lucas Matthysse (AP Photo/Aaron Favila)

No Freddie Roach. No Bob Arum. No pay-per-view dollars. No glitzy Las Vegas neon lights. No hyped up opponent. All there is is a legend, closer to the end of his career than to the start.

Manny Pacquiao prepares for a fight that will dictate how the sun will continue to rise for the remainder of his career.

“This fight will determine my future,” the Philippine senator has told media people during his preparation for the bout against Argentine Lucas Matthysse on July 15 in Kuala Lumpur.

But while the result will largely factor into Pacquiao’s future schedule, the atmosphere surrounding his preparation smacks of nostalgia. A bulk of his preparation was spent in General Santos City, halfway around the world from the Wild Card Gym where he and renowned trainer used to plot the downfall of foes.

It has all the throwback feels, as if Pacquiao has returned to where he started.

His showdown against the 35-year-old Matthysse marks the first time in many years that neither Arum nor Roach are key figures of his camp.

Arum, now 84 and the top honcho of Top Rank, will be conspicuously absent as Pacquiao decided to go at it alone, his MP Promotions making its first major international foray.

MP will instead be promoting the fight with Golden Boy Promotions, which handles Matthysse. Top Rank has reportedly been reduced to distributing the fight in the United States.

Also, Pacquiao’s best friend and coach Buboy Fernandez will now be calling the shots from his corner in place of Roach, who has been head trainer since 2001. This marks the end of the duo that shook the boxing world—pound for pound, one division at a time—since pairing up to stun Lehlo Ledwaba and barge into mainstream boxing consciousness.

Pacquiao will also be bringing a fight to Malaysia for the first time, and the majestic Petronas towers could be the backdrop to what could very well be Pacquiao’s final act of his career.

Against an Argentine brawler who is a high-risk, high-reward proposition for the Filipino icon, Pacquiao will have to draw from what worked for him before: Talent, skill, hard work and the burning desire to prove his doubters wrong.

Remember how he was “not popular enough” to mix it up with Oscar De La Hoya? He crushed the Golden Boy in 2008. Or how he supposedly  wouldn’t be able to bring his punching power up to the lightweight ranks? He sent Ricky Hatton to dreamland in 2009. Or even how he was “too small” to engage Antonio Margarito in a slugfest? He rearranged the Mexican’s facial features in 2010.

Pacquiao’s career reached its peak with a fight against Floyd Mayweather Jr., but since then, he has struggled to find a big-name fighter for that one last big fight card.

So he chose a dangerous one, instead—a slugger in Matthysse, who is also out to earn a piece of the spotlight Pacquiao has basked in for so long.

At 39, Pacquiao hopes to reboot his career. One last shot at glory. One more chance at a marquee fight. One more opportunity to empty the streets. And it starts at a place where everything began for one of boxing’s biggest stars of all time.