Last month, Rolling Stone sent author Michael Weinreb to Los Angeles, to spend a day with boxer Manny Pacquiao as he trained for his May 2 fight with Floyd Mayweather. Turns out, the sparring and speed-bag work was only part of the story – the constant circus that follows his every move was impossible to ignore (Pacquiao is arguably the most famous fighter in the world, after all).
"There is the inner circle, there is the outer circle and there are the ever-widening concentric circles of hangers-on who drift about the periphery like a distant star hovering around the sun," Weinreb writes of the scene at Wild Card.
"There are the members of the Filipino media who show up every day, and there are the members of the American media who show up in fits and starts, and there are the HBO executives, and there is the promoter and there is the camera crew the promoter hired to document everything. There is the security detail and there are the pressmen and the managers and the canines and the trainers and the celebrities, because it would not be a Pacquiao camp without the celebrities."
It also would not be a Pacquiao camp without lunch at his favorite Thai restaurant, Nat's, a few jokes from entourage members Buboy and Nonoy or trainer Freddie Roach filling the swear jar he's set up at ringside ($5 per profanity, by the way). Through it all, photographer Leslie dela Vega snapped away, and here's her photo diary of the day with the Pride of the Philippines.
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