Manny Pacquiao ready to set politics aside for Nov. 5 title fight vs. Jessie Vargas

LOS ANGELES - The Senator was smiling, looking fit and trim and feeling jovial to be sure.

That's because this is where Filipino Sen. Emmanuel Dapidran "Manny" Pacquiao belongs. At a boxing press conference announcing his next fight. It's right in his comfort zone.

Pacquiao was inside the Beverly Hills Hotel Thursday before a jam-packed news conference, pleased to talk about his first love and his Nov. 5 pay-per-view fight against WBO welterweight champion Jessie Vargas at the Thomas & Mack Center in Las Vegas.

After the 37-year-old ring warrior retired on April 9 following his third fight with Timothy Bradley - an impressive victory - he knew, possibly in a matter of minutes, that he had made a mistake.

"First, when I hung up my gloves and I realized, I feel lonely because when you are thinking that the sport you love, you're no longer active, I felt lonely and thinking about it over and over that boxing still likes me. Boxing loves me and I love boxing," Pacquiao said. "So why should I stop my boxing career? That's why I changed my mind. So I decided to continue my journey as a boxer."

This will not be a one-shot deal, either, says the man who knows Pacquiao better than most, longtime trainer, friend and confidant Freddie Roach.

"No, no," Roach said. "He told me right after the (Bradley) fight, he said, 'Freddie, my family wants me to quit but I can still do this.'

"And I told him, 'you can.' Once he starts to slow down, I'll be the first one to tell him."

But Roach, who will return to the Philippines with Pacquiao immediately to begin training camp, insists that not only can Pacman still do this at an elite level, he looks more like the old, more fierce Pacquiao than he has in a while.

"The last fight we did see a little more of the old Manny," Roach said. "A little more hunger, a little meaner, trying to hurt the guy and get him out of there. So I hope it carries over into this fight, which I think it will. That's what people want. They want the old Manny Pacquiao."

Roach is fully prepared to deal with the distractions that being a senator and national hero carry with it.

"We've dealt with distractions, but that's what he likes," Roach said. "A full plate is great for him, so now we need time for the senator, the trainee, and for basketball until four weeks before the fight. But I'll make sure everything's in place and he'll have time to get ready for the fight."

Roach said Pacquiao (58-6-2, 38 KOs) is the only man he would uproot his life for like this.

"We've been together 15 years," he said with a laugh. "A lot of marriages don't last that long."

Asked why he picked Vargas (27-1, 10 KOs) instead of undefeated super lightweight champion Terence Crawford, Pacquiao said, "Vargas is a champion and I want to be a champion again," he said. "It's an honor to get the belt again (for the first time) since I was elected a senator."

And Pacquiao wants to make sure a lot of people will see him regain the belt. He told his promoter, Top Rank Chairman Bob Arum, that he wanted to have 7,000 seats at the Thomas & Mack Center sell for $50, and that's what Arum did. More than 2,000 sold in the first hour they were for sale.

"Next time I might give out free tickets," Pacquiao said with a chuckle.

And with that, the happy warrior was off to another interview.