Manny Pacquiao puts Wild Card Boxing Club on the map


Wally Skalij / Los Angeles Times
Pacquiao transformed from a Filipino boxing sensation into the world’s top fighter at the Wild Card Boxing Club in Hollywood.

By Lance Pugmire
April 29, 2009

Driving north on Vine Street in Hollywood, just above Santa Monica Boulevard, it'd be easy to miss the home gym of the world's best boxer, Manny Pacquiao, and his equally respected trainer, Freddie Roach.

It's across from a Taco Bell and just south of a Vagabond Inn and an Armenian Church, tucked in a nondescript strip mall with Nat's Thai Food, Nirvana Massage, Susie's Designs, a laundromat, a beer/wine market and an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting room.

The gym, Wild Card Boxing Club, is in the rear of the second floor, upstairs from the laundromat.

Go up the concrete stairs and through a metal screen door and it leads into a room with two boxing rings, the distinct odors of sweat and freshly rolled hand tape, with walls decorated by two decades of fight posters. Dozens of fighters, pros and amateurs, are at various workout stations where heavy bags are swaying and speed bags are thumped.

It's here where workout fiend Pacquiao was transformed from a Filipino boxing sensation into the world's top pound-for-pound fighter under the direction of Roach, who has owned and operated Wild Card since 1994.

Back then, Roach was working in Las Vegas, but actor Mickey Rourke was exploring a boxing career and urged the former journeyman boxer to train him here. So Roach opened the club in this small Hollywood location.

Boxing gyms are by nature gritty, and Wild Card is no different with its worn carpet and small changing room that barely allows Pacquiao to stretch his legs while sitting. A few fights ago, Roach tried to train Pacquiao at a beachside facility in the Philippines, but the local fans created "a lot of invitations and distractions," Pacquiao said, and it was decided Wild Card was the best home base for his fighter.

In December, the 30-year-old Pacquiao (48-3-2, 36 knockouts) clinched 2008 fighter and trainer of the year recognition for himself and Roach, respectively, when he destroyed boxing legend Oscar De La Hoya and made the now-retired "Golden Boy" quit before the ninth round of their bout.

Junior Pineda, of Filipino descent and a Pacquiao fan visiting Wild Card from Cerritos, said, "Manny had already achieved God-like status before that with us."

But during Pacquiao's eight-week-long return to the U.S., after beating De La Hoya and in preparation for his Saturday night junior-welterweight fight in Las Vegas against England's Ricky Hatton, swarms of visitors descended upon Wild Card -- celebrities, new gym members and fans.

Roach said that since January he has signed up more than 300 new customers who pay him $5 a day or $50 a month to train. He has also hired a new assistant trainer, former heavyweight world champion Michael Moorer. "It's crazy," Roach said. "Who'd ever thought they'd all be coming to this place? I'm thinking about knocking a wall out to expand, or I might even have to move to a new place."

Wild Card stands firmly as a Hollywood hangout.

After winning his Golden Globe for best actor and before the Oscars were handed out, nominee Rourke ("The Wrestler") returned to sign movie posters for Wild Card members and visit his longtime friend Roach.

Wild Card member and singer Aimee Mann and her husband, singer Michael Penn, once played an impromptu concert during an amateur fight night "smoker" at the gym, Roach said. And during a recent Pacquiao workout, longtime Roach friend and boxing student/actor Mark Wahlberg came by to watch with actor friend Christian Bale.

Roach is so close to Wahlberg that he casually notes that he "knows the real 'Johnny Drama,' " who inspired the character in the HBO series "Entourage" that counts Wahlberg as a co-executive producer.

During the Wahlberg-Bale visit in late March, Roach saw Pacquiao was losing his concentration. So the trainer decided to close gym access during the fighter's 1-4 p.m. workouts and stop Saturday afternoon autograph sessions to keep Pacquiao's distractions at a minimum. Asked whether he enjoyed showing off for the famous, Pacquiao grinned widely and said, "Sometimes."

Enforcing the autograph ban falls to Rob Peters, an imposing bald man who serves as Pacquiao's bodyguard and an informal property manager continually barking for loitering car owners to park elsewhere.

"There's families with babies waiting outside for Manny for hours and hours. I tell them to leave," Peters said.

"The other day, I caught a guy with a load of dirty towels in his car so he could hang out in the laundromat. Then, he signs his kid up for a membership at the gym so he can stay longer. Then he goes over to the [Thai] restaurant when Manny's there, and, sure enough, he's sticking two boxing gloves in Manny's face hoping to get 'em signed."

Although the strip mall's Thai restaurant has a "B" health department grade card in its window, Pacquiao made a post-training meal there with his entourage part of his daily Wild Card routine, along with his training runs up to the Hollywood sign and the battering of his sparring partners.

Tina Srdakun, owner of Nat's Thai Food, says Pacquiao's party spends a minimum $500 on each weekday meal and more on Saturday feasts, with Pacquiao occasionally strumming a guitar and singing inside. The support has allowed the seven-table restaurant to survive lean times, Srdakun said.

"He's made it very busy," Srdakun said. "He just likes my food, and he's become like family. I know he's a very popular guy, the best boxer there is. But he's the best person too."

Next door at Nirvana Massage, a pitch black-tinted glass door opens into a dark room divided into draped-off quarters, where jars of body oils are set next to burning candles. An attractive Asian woman waves her arm for the visitor to enter, and another woman offers a hospitable smile.

"You want?" the woman asks, pointing to one of the massage tables.

No, says the visitor, who asks how the activity at the boxing club is affecting their business.

"No comment," the woman says, closing the door.

Johnny Drama wouldn't let the scene end that way, of course, but maybe Roach can pass it along to his Hollywood friends for a rewrite.

lance.pugmire@latimes.com

The Wild Card Gym or the Maywood Boxing Gym are 2 of the best gyms to hang out at.

Manny Pacquiao rocks the Conga Room


Ringo H.W. Chiu / For The Times
THE GLOVES ARE OFF: Manny Pacquiao shakes hand with the supporters during an event in celebration of his second-round knockout victory against Ricky Hatton.

The boxer known as 'Pac-Man' follows his Hatton knockout by singing in downtown L.A. -- after the Laker game, of course. Why not? He's already released a couple of singles in the Philippines.

By Yvonne Villarreal
May 5, 2009

Manny "Pac-Man" Pacquiao may be called the world's top pound-for-pound boxer, especially after a second-round knockout victory against Ricky "The Hitman" Hatton over the weekend in Las Vegas. But Monday night he was, pound-for-pound, the greatest singer in the world -- at least to some of those in attendance at the Conga Room in downtown Los Angeles to celebrate his victory.

"Tonight he can sing all night," trainer Freddie Roach said at the event benefiting the Manny Pacquiao Foundation, which supports underprivileged individuals in the Philippines. "You fight hard, you get to have fun . . . but not too much."

Projection screens in the Latin-infused nightclub showed boxing footage of Pacquiao as hundreds crowded the floor in anticipation of the International Boxing Organization and Ring magazine's world light welterweight champion. With Pacquiao scheduled to sing at 9 p.m., some drank and others danced as they waited. And waited.


But the 30-year-old Filipino boxing superstar was late to his own party because, like many Angelenos on Monday night, he was watching the Lakers take on the Houston Rockets in Game 1 of their Western Conference semifinal series -- just across the way from the Conga Room, in the crowd at Staples Center.

It wasn't long before fans -- some wearing shirts with Pacquiao's face emblazoned on them -- began chanting, "Manny! Manny! Manny!" By 11:30 p.m., the People's Champion (another of his many nicknames) had arrived. His first stop: the stage.

Outfitted in a cream-colored suit and surrounded by his entourage and fans, Pacquiao grabbed a mike and unleashed his vocal flair -- no match for his powerful left hook, but still displayed on numerous YouTube videos -- alongside Filipino singer Lito Camo. A sea of brightly lighted cellphone screens and camera flashes filled the space as Pacquiao crooned "Lahing Pinoy," which also served as his entrance song for his fight with Hatton:

"Sumigaw ang pinoy -- HOY!!

Ang lahat ng pinoy -- HOY!!

Ang lahi ng pinoy sa mundo

Pilipino"

Fans sang the song, which celebrates Filipino pride, along with their icon.

"We just recorded that before the fight," Pacquiao said, addressing the mostly Filipino crowd. "Next time I'm going to make an English song for everyone."

Pacquiao's global reach isn't limited to jabs and punches. His performance Monday night hinted at stardom outside the ring; in the Philippines, he's already previously released two songs. And he wouldn't be the first boxing powerhouse to venture into entertainmen.

Sugar Ray Robinson unsuccessfully attempted a career as an entertainer after his boxing career ended. Two-time world heavyweight boxing champion George Foreman, now a successful businessman perhaps best known for the George Foreman brand grills, briefly starred in his own sitcom on ABC, "George." And, in 2000, Oscar de la Hoya released a self-titled Latin pop album that was nominated for a Grammy.

If the roar of Pacquiao's fans during his performance is any indication, there are plenty of people who would flock to buy a future album release.

"Not only is he a good athlete, but he's a great entertainer," said Robert Lyons, 51, a fan from Ranchos Palos Verdes. "He has a way of capturing the hearts of everyone. It's great to see . . . and it's now great to listen."

Listen they did. Shortly after midnight, Apple from the Black Eyed Peas got behind the DJ booth and, as 1 a.m. neared, Pacquiao joined him onstage for another round of vocal bobbing and weaving. During the half-hour set, he performed the song he's most famous for, "Para Sa Iyo," and three other songs from an album scheduled to be released in the Philippines before the end of the year.

The crowd was his.

Victorious in the ring. Now, at least for one night, victorious on the stage.

yvonne.villarreal@latimes.com

Nice one

Nice Pics KiKi...Thanks (Damn I miss the Main Street Gym) Peace

Its a reciprocal relationship:

Roach accepted Pacman (actually the last trainer they approached before returning to the Philippines after being rejected by many trainers the first time the late Rod Nazario - Pacquiao's manager - tried to hawk his ward) under his wings; Pacquiao become famous; gym popularity follows.

Without Roach/Wild Card there will be no Pacquiao & vice versa.

Nice

It gets packed with each Pacquiao fight, it must make things very inconvenient for the other fighters at Wildcard.

Manny knows how to dress .

i always say this dude its on a class of his own hes a damn good boxer and knockout artist lol