If you watch a Manny Pacquiao fight he is always there on the sidelines.

Always.

The big, burly guy with the headband and the owner of the most intense stare of Team Pacquiao.

The adage ‘true friends are hard to find and if one you find someone grab hold of him and never let go’ should be applied in the strong bond between boxing legend Manny “Pacman� Pacquiao and his long-time Filipino trainer Restituto “Buboy� Fernandez.

Theirs is a friendship closer to brotherhood, which for more than a decade has witnessed defeats and victories not only in the boxing ring but their respective lives.

Manny and Buboy are lifelong friends who have known each other since childhood. They met in General Santos City where they were neighbors, their humble houses separated by a mere piece of plywood.

In an interview, Buboy said he first met Manny when he was nine years old and describes the boxing great as “(my) very close friend, my best friend. He was a very shy kid. I remember his good attitude towards people. He doesn’t step on other people to get to his goals.

� "Manny has always been good in boxing even when we were kids," reminisces Fernandez, smiling as he remembers that he was Paquiao’s first "promoter" during street brawls between kids in their poor neighborhood in the early 80s. Fernandez, four years Pacquiao's senior, played big brother through most of Manny's childhood when they used to fend for themselves against bigger and meaner bullies.

He recalls Manny as a true athlete who excelled in school sports events. A loyal friend and trainer for the past twenty years since Pacquiao first stepped into a boxing ring, Buboy works Pacquiao’s corner as an assistant, instructing Manny on what strategies to use alongside famed coach Freddie Roach.

He prefers to stay away from the limelight and instead focuses on the necessary day to day grind of keeping an athlete such as Pacquiao in top fighting form. Buboy says he is intensely proud of Manny’s achievements and as a friend also offers him advice outside the boxing arena, “I saw him achieve his dream. I always tell him to be careful. I know that he is a very good guy. A 500% good guy. But he has to be careful about the people around him. For me, it’s too hard to find a real friend in that situation where you are really popular. People will always try to get close to you if you are very successful.�

It’s been a long journey from the time when Pacquiao returned from Manila as an aspiring boxer and saw his old friend in GenSan “thin, smoking a cigarette sun-burned, wearing tattered shorts playing basketball in the streets�. Pacquiao offered Buboy to return with him to Manila and the two have never looked back.

In effect, Pacquiao taught Fernandez how to be his personal trainer even as Buboy had to work as a janitor in a gym just to make ends meet.

In essence, the two men agree that winning is the only way for them in light of the struggles they had to overcome. “I would not want to return to those days…. I hope my children will never have to experience what we had to face. That is why we have to win. Or else we could end up where we started,� maintains Fernandez.

Putting things in perspective, Buboy says that every fight they win is a triumph for the Philippines and especially the masses, “Our victory is their victory. A lot of people put their hopes in Manny’s victories. Poor people are inspired and they too believe they can rise up from their adversities.� Buboy is considered as one of the main factors why Pacquiao is where he is right now, a reminder of how far they have gone and yet to accomplish.

A good athlete can never be a great champion without a good coaching staff working hard reviewing tapes, teaching techniques and creating a game plan for every opponent. The Philippines is fortunate that one of the people who have Manny Pacquiao’s back is someone who knows the cost of what’s at stake.