By Ryan Songalia
MANILA, Philippines – James Dayap was sitting at home in Oxnard, Calif., pondering his next career move. It was September of 2014, more than a year since he left his job as Manny Pacquiao’s personal photographer.
After a short stint shooting for the Robert Garcia camp, he was out of work once again. Then the phone rang.
“I didn’t know who was calling,” Dayap said of the 702 area code that popped up in his caller ID. It was Floyd Mayweather Jr.
The conversation that ensued wasn’t like anything that most people will ever experience. Then again, few can relate to having the highest earning athlete in the world calling them out of the blue.
“Hey, I need you to pack all your things, you’re gonna move to Las Vegas, you’re gonna be my videographer,” Dayap recalls of that conversation. “Do you have your passport? Because we’re gonna go to Europe tomorrow.”
With camera in hand, Dayap boarded a private plane with Mayweather and The Money Team to France on his first day of work.
Dayap had known for years that he’d be involved in the Mayweather vs Pacquiao fight, which after years of delay will take place May 2 in Las Vegas. He just couldn’t have imagined which side he’d be working for.
Dayap, 28, grew up in the city of Stockton in Northern California. He was born to a mother from the Philippine province of Ilocos Sur and a father from Zambales. From ages 8-16, his career was in front of the camera, doing commercials for CitiBank, Pepsi and Hewlet Packard, and appearing in an episode of Nash Bridges.
While studying at the Academy of Art University in San Francisco, Dayap would make occasional visits to shoot Pacquiao’s training camps, beginning in 2008 with the Ricky Hatton fight. He was offered a job shooting videos for Pacquiao’s website just before graduating in 2010.
The Filipino-American spoke no Tagalog when he arrived in the Philippines to begin shooting, but soon became fluent. He became close friends with Pacquiao, and was a mainstay in training for many of his biggest matches. When he’d have quarrels with other members of the camp, he says, Pacquiao would stand up for him.
But that changed as the years progressed, Dayap claims.
“It started off like me and Manny were best friends. I guess like everything, everything comes to an end,” said Dayap.
Dayap left the Pacquiao camp shortly before strength and conditioning coach Alex Ariza, whom Dayap became close friends with, following Pacquiao’s knockout loss in the fourth Juan Manuel Marquez fight.
Move to Rios camp
Shortly after, Ariza was offered a job with the camp of Robert Garcia in Oxnard, Calif., where he’d work with Brandon Rios as he prepared to fight Pacquiao in November of 2013. Ariza remembered his friend Dayap, who soon joined the team.
Dayap said Pacquiao attempted to contact him a while after he left his camp, but said he was “far gone” at that point, working with Rios. He ran into Pacquiao in Macau, and says there was “no bad blood.”
“He asked me if I still read the Bible,” Dayap remembers. “It was a sad feeling leaving Team Pacquiao because it was one of the biggest parts of my career so far, but I have to give all things to Manny Pacquiao because now I’m in one of the best positions of my life.”
Dayap likens working against Pacquiao, a hero in his ancestral hometown, as being similar to an athlete playing against a former team.
“I look at it like the NBA. My good friend Isaiah Thomas was playing for the Phoenix Suns, now he’s playing for the Boston Celtics. You’re gonna switch teams and play against your former teams in sports and in boxing it’s no different.”
He isn’t the only Filipino in Mayweather’s camp. Marikit “Kitchie” Laurico, who was born and raised in the Philippines until age 11, is his personal assistant.
The Money Team’s videographer
By 3 pm., all members of the Mayweather team are present at the Mayweather Boxing Club on Schiff Drive in Las Vegas. Mayweather usually arrives at around 3:15. He’ll then change, select a color scheme from 30 different pairs of gloves, protective cups and headgear.
“It’s kind of like picking an outfit, he gets excited for it,” Dayap says.
Currently, Dayap is shooting many of the videos that appear on Mayweather’s social media channels, including all of the ones on his Instagram account. He’s also shooting a documentary on Mayweather’s life and sharing footage with Showtime.
The Filipino-American spoke no Tagalog when he arrived in the Philippines to begin shooting, but soon became fluent. He became close friends with Pacquiao, and was a mainstay in training for many of his biggest matches. When he’d have quarrels with other members of the camp, he says, Pacquiao would stand up for him.
But that changed as the years progressed, Dayap claims.
“It started off like me and Manny were best friends. I guess like everything, everything comes to an end,” said Dayap.
Dayap left the Pacquiao camp shortly before strength and conditioning coach Alex Ariza, whom Dayap became close friends with, following Pacquiao’s knockout loss in the fourth Juan Manuel Marquez fight.
Move to Rios camp
Shortly after, Ariza was offered a job with the camp of Robert Garcia in Oxnard, Calif., where he’d work with Brandon Rios as he prepared to fight Pacquiao in November of 2013. Ariza remembered his friend Dayap, who soon joined the team.
Dayap said Pacquiao attempted to contact him a while after he left his camp, but said he was “far gone” at that point, working with Rios. He ran into Pacquiao in Macau, and says there was “no bad blood.”
“He asked me if I still read the Bible,” Dayap remembers. “It was a sad feeling leaving Team Pacquiao because it was one of the biggest parts of my career so far, but I have to give all things to Manny Pacquiao because now I’m in one of the best positions of my life.”
Dayap likens working against Pacquiao, a hero in his ancestral hometown, as being similar to an athlete playing against a former team.
“I look at it like the NBA. My good friend Isaiah Thomas was playing for the Phoenix Suns, now he’s playing for the Boston Celtics. You’re gonna switch teams and play against your former teams in sports and in boxing it’s no different.”
He isn’t the only Filipino in Mayweather’s camp. Marikit “Kitchie” Laurico, who was born and raised in the Philippines until age 11, is his personal assistant.
The Money Team’s videographer
By 3 pm., all members of the Mayweather team are present at the Mayweather Boxing Club on Schiff Drive in Las Vegas. Mayweather usually arrives at around 3:15. He’ll then change, select a color scheme from 30 different pairs of gloves, protective cups and headgear.
“It’s kind of like picking an outfit, he gets excited for it,” Dayap says.
Currently, Dayap is shooting many of the videos that appear on Mayweather’s social media channels, including all of the ones on his Instagram account. He’s also shooting a documentary on Mayweather’s life and sharing footage with Showtime.
(Photos downloaded by Rappler.com from James Dayap’s Facebook page.)
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