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Manny Pacquiao jumps in the air and practises a kick during training. Photo: Twitter/Manny Pacquiao

Manny Pacquiao channels Bruce Lee for Keith Thurman fight – in his actions and his words

  • Boxing icon shows his impressive kicking technique on Twitter while quoting the martial arts superstar
  • Lee is Pacquiao’s idol – he formed his fighting style watching the Hong Kong hero’s films growing up in the Philippines

In a picture posted to his Twitter account on Friday, Manny Pacquiao launches himself into the air with a spinning kick as strength and conditioning coach Justin Fortune looks on.

“I fear not the man who has practised 10,000 kicks once, but I fear the man who has practised one kick 10,000 times,” Pacquiao wrote, referencing Lee’s famous saying.

It should come as no surprise to see Pacquiao channelling Hong Kong martial arts hero Bruce Lee for his fight against unbeaten American Thurman at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas on July 20.

Asked to explain his fighting style by The New York Times as he wrapped his hands inside Freddie Roach’s Wild Card Boxing gym ahead of his 2011 fight against Shane Mosley, it only took three words: “Like Bruce Lee.”

Manny Pacquiao faces Keith Thurman on July 20. Photo: AFP

“Bruce Lee is my idol,” Pacquiao told GMA in the build-up to the same bout. “All of Bruce Lee’s movies, I watch it. The quickness of his hand speed – bop!”

His former conditioning coach Alex Ariza believes that Pacquiao, when it comes to baseline movement, his continual attacking, and his footwork, built his fighting style studying Lee while growing up in the Philippines.

“Bruce Lee jumped around and kicked his feet and shook his head and shoulders,” Ariza told The New York Times in 2011.

“His feet moved in concert with his hands. He could be choppy, but he was rhythmic. Manny does the same thing. It comes from that.”

It makes sense that Pacquiao has been able to adapt Lee’s footwork so successfully to boxing.

Manny Pacquiao poses like Bruce Lee. Photo: YouTube

“You know where Bruce Lee got his footwork? Muhammad Ali,” Lee’s former student Leo Fong told EsNews Boxing in 2015.

“I would go to his house, he was running along the wall and would use a mirror, that would make him look like a southpaw.

“Then he would imitate Muhammad Ali, he went from there to there moving around – bang, bang, bang.”

Jute Kune Do author Teri Tom observed that Pacquiao throws his jab with his fist, turning his hip and putting the strong side forward, in a feinting movement that looks very similar to Lee’s technique.

“There’s so much going on up there [in Pacquiao’s head]. There are people who have studied Bruce Lee for many, many decades and they can’t break it down and figure it out. Manny has done it,” Tom told GMA in 2011.

“And I would assume he’s done it without an instructor. It seems like he absorbed a lot of what he saw Bruce Lee doing, he put the strong side up front.”

Manny Pacquiao flexes at a training session at Wild Card Boxing in Los Angeles as he prepares to take on Keith Thurman. Photo: AFP

Pacquiao still emulates Lee’s famous flex when he poses for pictures at media workouts and tried to copy his hairstyle once. However, it’s not just Lee’s actions and appearance the 40-year-old is channelling in the build-up to the Thurman fight, but also his words.

“I have no fear of any opponent in front of me, I am so self-sufficient that they do not bother me, and should I fight, should I do anything, I have made up my mind – that’s it baby. you better kill me before,” Lee famously said.

Pacquiao? “I am not intimidated by anybody,” he stated on PBC on Fox, staring Thurman in the eyes across the table.

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