Two professional boxers anxiously waited their turn to spar against Manny Pacquiao last week at Wild Card Boxing Club. More than just pride was at stake.
If they could knock him down, they would win $1,000.
It's an offer that Pacquiao's camp has made to every fighter who has entered the ring against him at his gym in Hollywood. So far, no one has won the prize.
After fighting a few rounds with Pacquiao, Ray Beltran (25-5, 17 knockouts) left the ring drenched in sweat.
"He's really, really hard," Beltran said.
When asked what are Pacquiao's strengths, Beltran replied, "Everything."
The boxing world is holding its breath that a superfight between Pacquiao and Floyd Mayweather Jr. will happen in the near future.
There may be a lot of people turning blue. Pacquiao isn't one of them.
"I don't need him in my boxing career," he said. "I'm already satisfied with what I've achieved in boxing. I think I accomplished all of my dreams."
Though Pacquiao declined to comment on Mayweather's recent controversial victory against Victor Ortiz, his trainer, Freddy Roach, was quick to call Mayweather's knockout punch a sucker punch.
"Not a bit of a sucker punch, definitely a sucker punch," Roach said.
When asked if Pacquiao, who is notorious for showing his competitors mercy, could be vulnerable to receiving that type of a punch if a Pacquiao-Mayweather fight happened, Roach said that Pacquiao "would have no problem" knocking him out.
Both Pacquiao and Roach said that when they first met, they knew they would be a great fit.
"My first impression when we do meet?" Pacquiao said. "I liked him."
Said Roach: "I never really met anybody that had the explosion that he has in his punches. . . . For a little guy, he weighed 122 pounds back then, it was just amazing."
Roach said that Pacquiao had only one good hand when he first started training him. After he lost to Erik Morales, Roach decided that needed to change.
"I told myself it was my job to make his right hand as good as his left."
Roach seems to have kept his word.
Pacquiao hasn't lost a fight since then.
MORE:
Q & A: Manny Pacquiao is ready to settle things
Manny Pacquiao and Juan Manuel Marquez, round three
--Melissa Rohlin
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