IShowSpeed Breaks Silence Months After Getting Dropped by Manny Pacquiao in Viral Sparring Footage

“Even the dust from a great man’s feet is a blessing,” so goes a great wisdom of yore. Not sure whether IShowSpeed would concur with the phrase, though. A few months ago, he interacted with a living legend. But instead of blessing, his quest for enlightenment ended rather painfully, it seems. The Twitch star, who is also one of the world’s most well-known YouTubers, had the privilege of exchanging a few light punches with Manny Pacquiao.

The clips of the meetup, where a body shot from the ‘PacMan’ floored IShowSpeed, went quite viral. Shannon Sharpe wanted the Twitch streamer to take him through that experience. It’s been three years since Pacquiao retired from boxing. However, like his great rival Floyd Mayweather Jr., he remains active in the exhibition circuit. Longtime trainer Freddie Roach once poignantly remarked, “He (Manny Pacquiao) had speed, and he had power, and it’s very, very hard to get those two together.” IShowSpeed can now vouch for it.

In the latest episode of his podcast, Shannon Sharpe mentioned Pacquiao’s body shot. “Well, I saw you had a sparring session with, uh, Manny Pacquiao, and he threw a body punch,” the former football tight end asked. IShowSpeed acknowledged. However, he felt if Pacquiao had gone for his face, then he might have tackled him a bit more effectively.

The response left Sharpe bewildered. Laughter could be heard in the background. The former footballer tried making the Twitch star understand that they were talking about a bona fide boxing great, whose record has yet to be surpassed. IShowSpeed immediately responded, “I said work him. I’m quick, though I got fast. I’m quick.”

When it failed to convince Shannon Sharpe, the YouTuber clarified that by ‘work-up’ he didn’t mean giving a beatdown to Manny Pacquiao. Unswayed, Sharpe took a different route, “So let me ask you a question: when he hit you with the body shot, what went through your mind?”

In a first, IShowSpeed accepted that Pacquiao’s punch had hurt him. So adding up, Sharpe elaborated that this is precisely what goes on in boxing. There must have been a reason why Manny Pacquiao avoided a face punch.

Testing against a legendary boxer

“Bro, we were only going body,” accepted IShowSpeed, further adding that he left himself ‘open on purpose’ to check what a body shot felt like. Shannon Sharpe continued, “So what was that experience like? Because it’s different than being in there like, Okay, I’m here with a regular guy.”

IShowSpeed replied, “I mean, listen, Manny, like, he wasn’t taking it seriously; he was doing that little face, you know, he was doing just smiling, so I tried to, like, you know, I tried to, like, really try to tick him off a little bit, tag him a little bit so he can take it a bit seriously like I want to get an actual spar.”

He explained that he wanted Manny Pacquiao to take the sparring a bit more seriously. That way he would experience the full intensity of sparring with a boxing legend. However, despite his attempts, the former eight-division champion just toyed around. So he intentionally made himself vulnerable so that Pacquiao could hit him. Finally, he experienced a punch from someone of Pacquiao’s caliber. The former world champion didn’t disappoint him.

As part of his IRL livestream, IShowSpeed had traveled to the Philippines. There he met Manny Pacquiao. The fun-filled sparring session saw a fully constrained Pacquiao laughing and enjoying himself while throwing body shots. After allowing IShowSpeed to throw a few punches, the ‘PacMan’ went for the kill with a sharp left counter. It immediately dropped the YouTube star. Nevertheless, it will not be the first time IShowSpeed has challenged any professional athlete. A few months ago he joined Logan Paul during a WrestleMania as well.

Which is your favorite Manny Pacquiao fight of all time?