BY NICK GIONGCO
It is obvious that Manny Pacquiao is deeply bothered by the coronavirus pandemic not only because he couldn’t personally attend to those in dire need of assistance.
With practically all sports on hold until health experts issue an advisory saying that everything is now OK, Pacquiao looked agonizingly uncomfortable during a video chat on Tuesday.
“Ayokong isipin ‘yan,” said Pacquiao, his eyes squinting and his entire face taking the form of a misshapen lump of flesh, obviously distraught at the thought of fighting before an empty arena.
There is talk that some sports, including boxing, might experiment on staging events behind closed doors.
Pacquiao, whose fighting style is crowd-pleasing, insists that it is something he never dreamt of happening.
“Never pumasok sa isipan ko na mangyayari ito,” said Pacquiao, 41, whose last fight was in July last year in Las Vegas.
Before the pandemic, Pacquiao was being trumpeted to return to the ring in July.
But with the US still grappling with the virus, so is the rest of the world and it doesn’t appear as if Pacquiao might even get to fight in August or September.
There are those who even theorize that 2020 is already done.
Pacquiao, however, is keeping his fingers crossed that the dust will eventually settle sooner and not later so “everybody can go back to their normal lives.”
To keep himself busy and in shape despite the inactivity, Pacquiao has been working out almost daily, engaging in almost every training routine from shadowboxing to hitting the heavy bag aside from doing plyometrics.