LOS ANGELES -- Now it can be told.
The fighting Sarangani Congressman Manny Pacquiao had a premonition in his losing fight with Mexican arch-rival Juan Manuel Marquez, who knocked him out cold on December 8, 2012.
Leading comfortably with a tick remaining in the sixth round, he caught a vicious right from the Mexican legend that dropped him to the canvas for good, unconscious for more or less two minutes.
"A week before the fight or two days before we left for Las Vegas, I dreamt that either of us would lose via stoppage," the World Boxing Organization welterweight champion told this writer while taking his dinner at his mansion here last Saturday.
"My dream was unclear as to who between us will get knocked out," Pacquiao, who will be facing undefeated American World Boxing Council/World Boxing Association 147-pound titleholder Floyd Mayweather 12 days from now in Las Vegas, narrated.
"Basta sa panaginip ko, may matutulog kaya, siyempre, ang naisip-isip ko, ako ang mananalo at si Marquez and matatalo. Parang sign yung panaginip ko, di ba?" the 2000-2010 Fighter of the Decade honoree of the Boxing Writers Association of America continued.
Pacquiao added that his spiritual adviser, Pastor Segundo Natividad even prayed over him and said either someone would win via KO.
"So I really could not believe that I lost. One week after that day, we were already in Manila, saka ko lang na-realize na ako ang natalo sa panaginip ko," he recalled.
"Naiyak ako nang makita ko sa TV ang laban," he said. "Naiyak ako hindi dahil natalo ako. Naiyak ako dahil nakita ko na napakarami ang lumuha sa pagkatalo ko. I felt I failed the fans sa hindi ko pagkapanalo."
"My sadness lasted for only a short while though. I recovered easily and, in fact, I wanted to fight April of the following year, di ba? Pacquiao related. ?But my family, my wife (Jinkee), my parents, brothers and sisters, friends and associates advised me to rest a while and think things over.
"The rest, of course, is history. When I fully recovered from the stigma of that defeat, I ask my promoter to arrange a fight with anybody, who turned out to be (Brandon) Rios, who I fought November of the following year," the eight-division champion reminisced.
Pacquiao won that fight to arrange a rematch with Timothy Bradley, who dealt him the first of his only back-to-back defeats in 2012. He won that, too and regain the 147-pound diadem. Pacquiao followed that with another overwhelming triumph over another erstwhile unbeaten fighter, Chris Algieri.
His historic encounter with Mayweather, owner of an enviable 47-0 win-loss slate, is set May 2 at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, Nevada and is considered the biggest and most lucrative in the annals of boxing.
Despite his three consecutive wins, some sectors in media gauge that near career-ending loss to Marquez as a bad sign of what would happen in his welterweight unification showdown with Mayweather, which he denied.
"That will never happen again," he assured. "As I told you last Friday, I am ready, physically, mentally and, especially spiritually. I took that dream and eventual defeat more of a lesson from Somebody up there. A reminder that I should, all the more, serve Jesus by way of spreading His words and teachings."
"The stigma of that loss, Pacquiao said has totally been erased from his mind, that his faith and belief in Jesus has not diminished.
Pastor Natividad agreed by asserting that "Manny is spiritually prepared, that means he has put into his life his belief and faith to the Lord. Na isinasabuhay niya ang kung anuman ang mga natutuhan niya sa pagbabasa ng mga salita ng Diyos."
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