SAN ANTONIO–Come May 14, the electorate will grade Congressional candidate Emmanuel D. Pacquaio. But Saturday night, after he scored an eighth-round KO over Jorge Solis before 14,793 (gate of over $1 million) at the Alamodome, Manny Pacquaio the pugilist graded himself. “He was difficult to fight,” Pacquaio said of the 32-1-2 Mexican fighter. “I was not 100 percent with my performance tonight. I would say it?was 80 percent of Manny Pacquaio.?I was not at 100 percent because of his boxing style.” As the now 44-3-2 Pacman spoke, you could still the the quater-sized gash above his left eye which was caused by a head butt by the much taller Solis. “He never hurt me with a punch,” Pacman said. “He hurt me with his head.” The?head gash was nicely handled by San Antonio’s famed cutman Joe Souza but?a concerned Pacquaio stepped up the pace and tore inside on Solis. He drilled Solis with stiff right jabs and powerful lefts to deck him twice. The second time he was down, Solis did not beat referee Vic Drakulich’s count. The voters, I mean the voting judges, had Pacman in front 69-65, 68-65 and 69-64 when Drakulich counted Solis out. The www.boxingconfidential.com scorecard favored Pacman 69-65 entering the eight round of the 12-rounder in which the Pinoy hero retained his WBC International super featherweight title.
