Ballot boxer has a fighting chance

Manny Pacquiao scurries through a three-hour workout at a Hollywood gym. He’s tattooing a speed bag, then shuffling through a shadow-boxing session, and finally knocking out more than 100 sit-ups while wearing a Beatles T-shirt.

“Makes sense,” one ringside observer notes. “In the Philippines, he’s as popular as the Beatles and Michael Jordan together.”

Pacquiao, 28, will fight a super-featherweight nontitle bout Saturday against unbeaten underdog Jorge Solis at San Antonio’s Alamodome. He’s expecting to reassert his position as one of the world’s greatest pound-for-pound fighters.

Then, exactly one month later, the married father of three will take on the more significant personal challenge of winning election to national office.

On May 14, he’ll try to become one of 231 members of the Philippines’ House of Representatives. A month ago, Pacquiao said that polling around the province of South Cotabato and his hometown, General Santos City, showed him trailing popular incumbent Darlene Antonino-Custodio.

“I want to help poor people, to work for them, to give them an education,” Pacquiao said. “Nobody told me to run for politics. I’m running for my heart.”

A lawyer in Antonino-Custodio’s political party argued to a fair-political-practices organization that telecasts and radio broadcasts of Pacquiao’s fight should be banned in the Philippines because showing the bout constitutes an unfair campaign advantage.

Public outrage followed, and the request was denied.

“This shows how these long-term elected officials can become void of all common sense,” said Bob Arum, Pacquiao’s promoter.

Pacquiao’s fights, after all, have become “emotional experiences” to his most loyal fans -- many of whom have been affected by the country’s devastating realities of poverty, political corruption, and last year’s string of typhoons. In December, Typhoon Durian left more than 1,000 dead.

“When Pacquiao fights, they show it in theaters, and no other sporting events are given that kind of recognition,” said Federico Costales, a Manila resident who was vacationing in Los Angeles last week when he learned Pacquiao’s training appearance coincided. He brought several relatives to visit.

“Our country has gone through a time of severe calamities: the heavy typhoons, being struck by terrorists, kidnappings,” Costales said. “But Manny Pacquiao brings honor to our country. Now, especially in this election time, our country has lots of factions, but for some reason we are all united when Manny Pacquiao fights.”

In the Southeast Asian island nation of 85 million people, Pacquiao (43-3-2, 33 knockouts) has become beloved first for his fighting success. A fast, powerful puncher with a strong chin and superb endurance, he most recently defeated Mexican legend Erik Morales with a third-round knockout in November that gave the Filipino a decisive second victory in their stirring trilogy. Ring magazine named Pacquiao its 2006 fighter of the year.

In 2003, he claimed an 11th-round technical knockout over another Mexican great, Marco Antonio Barrera, in San Antonio. He knocked down current World Boxing Council super-featherweight champion Juan Manuel Marquez three times in the first round of their 2004 bout before settling for a draw.

“Manny’s a little freak who’s gifted in that he’s strong and fast,” said Pacquiao’s trainer, Justin Fortune. “Other guys can get fit, but they can’t maintain the speed he has later in fights. He starts fast, and finishes faster.”

His ring wars have made him such a prominent national figure that Philippines President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo referred to him as a hero in her 2006 state-of-the-nation address.

“What matters to us is who Manny Pacquiao, the man, is,” Costales said. “He’s a simple man who’s risen from scratch to become a great example of success and determination. He used to be a hard-working baker. He’s always been someone who’s loved to work, and who works hard for his family. Filipinos adore other people who start with such a lowly condition and who become so great.”

Promoter Arum wants to make Pacquiao’s popularity a crossover success in North America and beyond. That’s one of the reasons Pacquiao is fighting in San Antonio, and perhaps why he’ll soon fight in Vancouver, Canada, which has a sizable Filipino population.

“It makes sense,” Arum said. “More and more Anglos know who he is [and] the Hispanic fight fans already have great respect for him for how he fought Morales and Barrera....

“Manny’s an interesting character, and if we get him to congress, he becomes incredibly unique.”

Meanwhile, Pacquiao finds himself still in the midst of a legal matter in this country. Arum and Oscar De La Hoya’s Golden Boy Promotions are suing each other over the contractual rights to Pacquiao.

The boxer signed a multiyear contract with De La Hoya in September, then returned a bonus check and took a richer $1-million bonus from Arum in November. Golden Boy attempted to stop Saturday’s fight, but a Nevada court declined to issue an injunction.

Pacquiao won’t discuss the litigation, including the deposition by his lead trainer, Freddie Roach, that De La Hoya handed Pacquiao a suitcase full of cash, or rumors that Pacquiao quickly spent Golden Boy’s cash gambling and purchasing a car.

“I don’t want to go there, no comment,” Pacquiao said when asked about the cash exchanges.

His friend, Winchell Campos, said of Pacquiao, “I believe he can be successful in boxing and government. He is good at separating chaos, of being the superstar boxer right now, of cracking jokes with us back at the apartment, and then campaigning. But this fight’s important for him to prove to the people he can do both things. He has to be spectacular.”

Pacquiao maintains that no one need fret.

“I’m humble, and I don’t want to change,” he said. “Everything is under control. I’m prepared for my fight. Right now, all my focus is on the fight. It is important to win, but [the fight] is not about the election to me. Winning is about taking care of my family and seeing my fans. This is not just for me, but for all of us.”

lance.pugmire@latimes.com

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The card

Boxing matches scheduled for Saturday’s event in San Antonio:

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* Manny Pacquiao (43-3-2) vs. Jorge Solis (30-0-2).

* Jorge Arce (46-3-1) vs. Cristian Mijares (30-3-2) for Mijares’ World Boxing Council super-flyweight championship.

* Brian Viloria (19-1-1) vs. Edgar Sosa (26-5) for vacant WBC light-flyweight championship.

* Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. (30-0-1) vs. Anthony Shuler (20-4-1).