MANNY PACQUIAO MEETS DESTINY

This Sunday morning (Manila Time) June 29, 2008, with the Moon in Aquarius, Manny Pacquiao of Mindanao, Philippines finally met his destiny – to be the first Asian to win championships in FOUR categories – flyweight, super bantamweight, junior lightweight (super featherweight) and lightweight. He thus joins the likes of Tommy Hearns, Roberto Duran, Sugar Ray Leonard and Oscar de la Hoya – all all-time greats.

Pacquiao is also now considered as the world’s greatest pound-for-pound boxer.

All he had to do to meet this destiny was to beat Mexiacan-American David Diaz, the WBC lightweight champ. And he did it in a spectacular way.

OLD FORM

Manny Pacquiao was back in his old form -- the aggressive, fast-punching killer machine.

Pacquiao’s last fight in March 2008 was against Juan Manuel Marquez for the super featherweight crown. It was a horrible fight for Pacquiao. He did all the wrong moves. He was slow and was counter-punching instead of attacking. It was a bittersweet victory for Pacquiao. It was his first legitimate boxing crown since giving up the super bantamweight title in 2003. But the fight was anybody’s call and some people thought that the fight should have gone to Marquez. (See Pacquiao takes boxing crown from Marquez)

The second Pacquiao-Marquez fight was quite karmic. In their first fight in March 2004, it was declared a DRAW even though Marquez was floored three times in the first round. One judge was later found to have miscalculated his scorecards (he gave a 10-7 score in the first round when it should have been a 10-6 score because of the three knockdowns. In other matches, three knockdowns equal a knockout.) Thus, Pacquiao was robbed of 2 boxing titles – WBA and IBF world featherweight titles – that night.

Four years later, Marquez was holding another title – WBC Super featherweight champ – and Pacquiao still had no world title to his name. But this time, karma went against Marquez. Though he was the defending champion and it was a VERY close fight, the judges went for Pacquiao.

But with the Diaz fight, there was no need for judges. Pacquiao was back in his old fighting style. It was all vintage Pacquiao – pummeling the WBC lightweight king David Diaz to a bloody pulp.

Pacquiao was super fast. And he was moving all the time. And like in the old times, he was throwing punches left and right. It was superb.

GLORY AT LAST

After fighting for almost five years without a world championship belt, Pacquiao now has two in two categories – junior lightweight and lightweight. And he has made history and joined the ranks of boxing’s all-time greats.

PACQUIAO TAKES BOXING CROWN FROM MARQUEZ

Filipino fighter Manny Pacquiao has been dreaming of the super featherweight crown for more than four years. In 2004, even though he floored Juan Manuel Marquez three times in the first round, the fight was declared a draw.

For some reasons, he got to fight the world's best boxers, Marco Antonio Barreira and Erik Morales when these guys just happened to have lost their championship belts.

Last year, several Filipino boxers won world championships yet the Philippines' best boxer was crownless or beltless.

Finally, Marquez, the WBC super featherweight champion decided to finally give Pacquiao a rematch after 4 years.

Not many people gave Marquez a chance. But he came well-prepared. And he almost took the match.


TENTATIVE AND SLOW

Pacquiao was very tentative and quite slow. Perhaps it is the effect of going into the ring so many pounds higher than the weight limit.

The fantastic hand speed of Pacquiao was not seen often. And he seemed to be afraid of mixing it up. It was a very different Pacquiao out there. There didn't seem to be any fire in him. Is he near the end of the road?

Perhaps he was distracted by all the instructions his corner had been shouting the whole duration of the match. It was irritating for me. A fighter could not fight and listen to instructions at the same time.

KNOCKDOWN

A good combination of punches floored Marquez in the third round. Pacquiao followed it up with a flurry of punches. Marquez was in a daze but survived.

In the fourth round, the old Pacquiao would have gone straight and mixed it up with the opponent come what may. But this new Pacquiao was tentative. And so Marquez recovered.

Fortunately, Pacquiao got a second wind in the 10th round and staggered Marquez.


SPLIT DECISION

Pacquiao was lucky to have won a Split Decision. He fought a much better fight in their first match yet he just got a draw there.

I thought the judges would give the match to Marquez because he was the champion. Champions are usually given additional credits or benefit of the doubt. But then, Pacquiao was at least a 2-1 favorite. A lot more people in the gambling town of Las Vegas would be mad had Marquez won.

Pacquiao's handlers seemed to be training him to fight in a higher division by making him fight a lot heavier than he should. They should not have not made the Marquez fight a trial run for Pacquiao's future fights in the higher division. Pacquiao almost lost this fight.

And by the way Pacquiao fought, it seems that it would be better for him to remain in the super featherweight category.


WRONG ADVICE

I now realize that a boxer's coach and / or trainer can actually cause the boxer's defeat. In this case, the advice and training given to Pacaquiao almost cost him the fight.

Pacquiao, like George Foreman and Mike Tyson, is a power puncher. The power puncher's strategy is based on offense. The power puncher must punch his way through the best defense put up by the enemy. His best defense is offense.

If Foreman or Tyson would be told to think of defense first, they would not last long, especially if they would be fighting intelligent boxers.

Marquez is one of the most intelligent boxers today. He knows how to maintain a strategy and change tactics. He is a fast thinker. The way to fight him is to attack him like a bulldozer just like what Pacquiao did in their first match.


COUNTER-PUNCHER

Marquez is one of the best counter-punchers in the business. Incredibly, Pacquiao's handlers wanted him to counter-punch the best counter-puncher around!

From an attacking power-puncher, they wanted Pacquiao to counter-punch a counter-puncher. This is the silliest thing I have ever heard.

EXTRA WEIGHT

Add to this the fact that they made Pacquiao come into the ring ten pounds or so heavier than the weight limit, then it is truly remarkable that Pacquiao was still able to eke out a win.

The extra weight seemed to have made him slow-footed and heavy-handed, especially since he was ordered to counter-punch instead of simply attacking.

At any rate, congratulations to the Pac-Man. In spite of the wrong advice and training he was given, he still managed to win. He has now beaten three of the world's best boxers, pound-for-pound . He is the first Asian to have won 3 world boxing titles.

Whatever reasons his handlers had in giving Pacquiao the wrong training, I hope they now realize their folly. I hope they won't do it again.