How Basketball’s Helped Manny Pacquiao Enter the GOAT Conversation

With Pacquiao fighting for the first time in two years, it’s worth highlighting the other sport the legend praises for helping him become one of the best ever.

Manny Pacquiao Keith Thurman Jab 2019
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LAS VEGAS, NEVADA - JULY 20: Manny Pacquiao (R) connects with a punch on Keith Thurman during their WBA welterweight title fight at MGM Grand Garden Arena on July 20, 2019 in Las Vegas, Nevada. (Photo by Steve Marcus/Getty Images)

Manny Pacquiao Keith Thurman Jab 2019

While the ring is where Manny Pacquiao became a legend, the court deserves a little bit of credit for helping boxing’s only eight-division champion creep into the GOAT conversation.

If the second half of the above sentence sounds preposterous, you haven’t been paying attention. But with Pacquiao returning to action for the first time following his rousing victory over Keith Thurman two summers ago, and on the precipice of making history yet again, it’s worth highlighting the other sport the PacMan is obsessed with and the role it’s played in his incomparable career.

“If I don’t have a fight, I always play basketball for cross-training and to stay fit,” the 42-year-old Pacquiao tells Complex Sports over the phone.

From an unheralded pro who debuted in 1995 at 106 pounds to one of the greatest welterweights boxing has seen 26 years later, there are a lot of reasons why Pacquiao will (eventually) retire with a resume worthy of being considered among the greatest. Natural ability, incredible instincts, a tenacious work ethic, and some spiritual serendipity are the obvious ones. Basketball deserves an assist.

“It’s great footwork for fighters,” says Freddie Roach, Pacquiao’s Hall of Fame trainer. “We do have a rule: Four weeks before a fight Manny’s not allowed to play basketball. We made that a while ago.”

When you watch Pacquiao at his best—like his throwback performance against Thurman when he was darting and ducking, shuffling then pivoting to create angles the formerly undefeated welterweight champ had trouble handling—you catch glimpses of basketball’s impact on him. Watch his feet and the difference in quickness between Pacquiao and his opponent is often startingly. Impressively agile, Pacquiao’s an explosive athlete whose lower half looks nothing like other welterweights’.

“Everyone says, ‘Where do those calves come from?’” says Roach. 

Basketball’s been a passion of Pacquiao’s for a long time since it’s the No. 1 sport in his native Philippines. Forever a Michael Jordan fan, Pacquiao long ago perfected his left-handed jump shot that’s as awkward as it is reliable. “Maybe it’s not the best style I’ve ever seen in my life, but it goes in,” says Roach. Pacquiao actually made his professional basketball dreams come true when made his debut in the Philippines Basketball Association in 2014, a month before a title defense. There are plenty of YouTube videos of the pint-sized Pacquiao dribbling, driving, and launching during various pro and pickup games.

Manny Pacquiao Jump Shot PBA 2014

Always the point guard—“I’m the one who dictates the play,” says Pacquiao—the only person he talks trash to on the court is his brother, the retired boxer Bobby Pacquiao. Manny wants to win every game and will bark out orders to his teammates to play defense when it’s time to grind. Games to 11 aren’t his thing. Full-court, 5-on-5 is.

“When we’re over in the Philippines, we’ll play for three full games—I mean three four-quarter games without subbing out,” says David Sisson, Pacquiao’s personal assistant who balled during his days at West Coast Baptist College in Lancaster, California. “When I’m playing with him, I want to sub out and he’ll be like, ‘How old are you?’ I’m like, ’29.’ He’s like, ‘I’m 42, let’s go.’ It’s crazy what he does, but that’s how he’s able to stay in shape all year long.”

Which is not something every fighter does. While plenty of guys immediately return to the gym after fights, some pack on the pounds between bouts making training camp that much more grueling. Staying fit year-round has undoubtedly played a role in Pacquiao’s longevity and that longevity is a big part of Pacquiao’s legacy that, crazily, he’s still cementing.  

If he was facing his originally scheduled opponent Saturday and pulled off the upset, conversations about placing the PacMan directly amongst the gods of boxing wouldn’t be hyperbole. Beating someone the caliber of Errol Spence Jr.—the bigger, stronger, younger, and undefeated southpaw out of Texas whose resume at 147-pounds is the best of any current welterweight champ—would’ve been yet another incredible achievement in a career full of ‘em.

Instead of a legacy fight against one of today’s top pound-for-pound fighters in Spence, who withdrew from the summer’s best bout last week because of an eye injury, Pacquiao (62-7-2, 39 KOs) pivots to a showdown with WBA super world welterweight champ Yordenis Ugas (Saturday, 9 p.m. ET, FOX Sports PPV).



“We do have a rule: Four weeks before a fight Manny’s not allowed to play basketball. We made that a while ago.” — Freddie Roach


Pacquiao, ironically, will try to take back the belt the WBA—by far the worst of boxing’s alphabet sanctioning bodies—revoked in January, citing inactivity, and awarded to Ugas (26-4, 12 KOs). The mild-mannered PacMan doesn’t really care about the corrosive politics of boxing. Nor does he care about the switch in opponent less than two weeks before the fight goes down at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas. 

“I always consider myself a bipartisan boxer,” Pacquiao told reporters a day after the Ugas fight was announced. “I am happy to fight either right-handed or southpaw fighters. It’s no problem for me at all to switch the styles that I’m going to face.”

While beating Ugas, a top 10 welterweight, won’t carry the cachet of beating Spence, it would be historic. Pacquiao can become the oldest fighter to win a welterweight belt. He would break his own record, set at age 40, when he beat Thurman.

If you couldn’t tell by now, Pacquiao’s resume is ridiculous. He’s defeated too many legends to list here, but feel free to scroll through BoxRec for confirmation. Know that no other boxer has won 12 world titles in eight divisions. Three times the Boxing Writers Association of America named him Fighter of the Year. The BWAA chose him as its Fighter of the Decade (2000-2009). He’s been stopped once since 1999. He fought (and lost to Floyd Mayweather Jr.) in the highest-grossing PPV in combat sports history. He absolutely deserves to be mentioned amongst legends like Muhammad Ali, Sugar Ray Robinson, Rocky Marciano, and Bernard Hopkins, to name just a few.

Naturally, plenty of ballers admire Pacquiao and want to be close to greatness. NBA players, past and present, often roll through Wild Card Boxing Club in Hollywood to catch Pacquiao training before a fight. Roach fondly remembers visits from Charles Barkley and Shaquille O’Neal to his gym, among so many others over his years working with Pacquiao. Klay Thompson, Karl Anthony-Towns, and Jordan Clarkson stopped by Wild Card separately in recent weeks to say hi. 

“It’s an honor to have celebrities visit my training like Klay Thompson and Karl Anthony-Towns and others,” says Pacquiao. “I’m so happy to get moral encouragement.” 

Almost as happy as when he’s on the hardwood, all 5’51/2” of him, and draining threes like one of his favorite current players Steph Curry. 

“I love playing basketball,” says Pacquiao.

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