Manny Pacquiao’s workout an exercise in sweat, promotional frivolity, party chatter

By John Katsilometes

Tuesday, March 9, 2010 | 6:48 p.m.

I believe it was "Peanuts" comic-strip star Charlie Brown who once said, "There are three things in life that people like to stare at: A flowing stream, a crackling fire and a Zamboni clearing the ice."

Let us add to that list the great Manny Pacquiao circling the ring, and firing his fists at an unseen opponent. Hard not to watch that.

There is an artistry in what Pacquiao does, both solitarily and, today, before more than 1,000 adoring fans at a warehouse-like workout space and media center at the Gaylord Texan hotel in Dallas. Checking him out at ringside is a breathtaking look at what it would be like to encounter a windmill in a tornado, to borrow a phrase once used by another legendary fictional character, Opie Taylor.

It was an open workout for the Pac Man, which means it was free and open to the public. And those who wanted to watch the finest pound-for-pound fighter on the planet stretch and punch and dance waited nearly an hour for that privilege. One woman, the dynamic Linda Parong of Dallas, took a personal day off work at a Dallas health-care clinic to watch Pacquiao swat and sweat.

"I am Filipino myself, so of course I am a Manny fan," she said. "Boxing is a national sport in the Philippines, and he is a national hero."

Parong has tickets to Saturday's fight. "The $50 ones. I am poor!" she said, wearing a Pacquiao T-shirt and relishing the chance to see the champ up close and personal.

And this was no photo-op, 20-minutes-and-done session. Pacquiao worked out for more than an hour and a half. At one point his trainer, Fast Freddie Roach, entered the ring wearing a body protector bearing the name of his gym in Hollywood (Wild Card) and the oversized hand pads trainers wear so their fighters can pummel their outstretched mitts. Pacquiao slammed away at Roach's hands and midsection with such fury that you prayed he wouldn't experience a Ricky Hatton flashback.

What was lacking were any words of import from this week's (lone) star attraction in the run-up to Saturday night's WBO welterweight title fight at Cowboys Stadium. Unlike yesterday, when challenger Joshua Clottey worked out for about 20 minutes and talked for at least 20 more, Pacquiao was almost entirely business. Oh, he did lend some promotional shenanigans to the session, posing for photos with none other than fight fan and former Cowboy playmaker Michael Irvin. Top Rank chief Bob Arum and Cowboys owner Jerry Jones joined in, and Pacquiao even "presented" Jones with a bottle of wine to replace the vino copped a few weeks ago during the NFL Scouting Combine by Saints coach Sean Payton.

The story there, as first reported by Sports Illustrated's Peter King, is that Jones had reserved a bottle of his favorite wine (Caymus Special Selection cabernet sauvignon) for the team's annual dinner at St. Elmo Steak House. But Payton and the Saints dined there the night before the Cowboys descended on the high-end eatery, and Payton ordered the very bottle reserved by Jones. Given that Payton and the Saints had just won the Super Bowl, they were delivered the wine set aside for Jones. Not satisfied with copping the bottle reserved for the vaunted Cowboys owner, Payton wrote a note to Jones and handed it to a waiter to be delivered to the Cowboys' table the next night. It read: "WHO DAT! World Champions XLIV Sean Payton".

Payton and Jones are friends, so there was a heavy dose of tomfoolery involved in this wine thing. But today, with Irvin onstage (or, rather, in ring), Pacquiao handed Jones a replacement bottle. And Jones allowed Pacquiao to wear Jones' 1992 Super Bowl ring. And Irvin playfully placed a closed fist against Pacquiao's cheek. The whole episode might have lasted longer than the duration of Saturday's fight, for which Pac Man is a heavy favorite.

This public display of boxing acumen and promotional chicanery quite pleased Arum, who took another in a series of swipes at how Las Vegas handles championship boxing.

"This is indicative of why Las Vegas is losing the edge to compete," Arum said while standing at ringside as Pacquiao went about his business. "The casinos, years ago, when (Marvelous Marvin) Hagler, (Sugar Ray) Leonard, (Thomas) Hearns and (Roberto) Duran were in their prime, used to have these training sessions open to the public. You'd charge $1 apiece and the money would go to charity. But the bean counters in the casinos figured it cost too much to open the room for free, so the open workouts died off in the 1990s.

"After that, they'd take the fighters to local gyms, but they couldn't accommodate these types of crowds, so the excitement was lost."

It wasn't lost today on Irvin, a man who knows a good time when he's dropped in the middle of it. I asked if he'd compare the fight atmosphere in Dallas to that in Vegas, he smiled that million-kilowatt smile and said, "First, when you see Cowboys Stadium it will blow you away."

Then he went regional.

"Dallas draws from both coasts, it's right in the middle of the country so everyone can converge here," he said. "You'll have, what, 50,000 people at this fight? We'd have 100,000 for (Floyd) Mayweather-Pacquiao, if they have it in Dallas, but Mayweather doesn't want that, I guess. What's that all about? But absolutely, Dallas has star power. What it doesn't have is the 24-hour party opportunities Las Vegas has. To suggest anyone matches Las Vegas as Sin City would be outlandish.

"But Dallas is a great place to party. There are many parties, and many willing participants who want to party. Trust me on this!"

There can be no argument, not with the Playmaker or anyone else in Big D. Dallas is a player, and it is taking its game to the masses.

Follow John Katsilometes on Twitter at twitter.com/JohnnyKats.