Some nights you wonder if you know anything about boxing at all. Saturday night, as Manny Pacquiao brutally ripped the title of ?people?s featherweight champion? from Marco Antonio Barrera in 11 brutal and one-sided rounds, was one of those nights.
I, like the overwhelming majority of writers canvassed prior to the fight, had felt not that Pacquiao couldn?t win, but wouldn?t. What certainly wasn?t anticipated was the manner of his victory over Barrera. I had figured that if Pacquiao were going to win, it would be by sudden dramatic knockout, and that it would be early in the fight. The longer the fight went on, the more I thought that Barrera?s counter-punching skills would allow him to assert his authority in the latter half of the fight, and that Manny needed to get lucky early.
I think I am correct in saying that most people who picked Manny to win believed it would be achieved in that manner.
In the event, the reverse was true. The only real success of any kind for Barrera was during the early rounds. As the fight progressed it was Manny who dominated, and Barrera was subjected to a withering assault that finally prompted his cornermen to step in and save him from further punishment. By that time he was cut and grazed, had visited the canvas twice, and was tottering around like a drunken sailor on the verge of being stopped anyhow. It was a shocking sight to see a man who has not been stopped since 1996 being handed so consummate a defeat.
The result and its manner were shocking. It reminded me of the historic fight between Sandy Saddler and Willie Pepp. Though perhaps Pacquaio was not as big an underdog, neither he nor Saddler were proven world beaters at the weight, and both faced off against a dominant champion and future hall of famer whom they treated with disdain. They were underdogs who just didn?t bother reading the script.
So, what does the fight tell us? Firstly, it tells us that I will never earn a living predicting fights. In addition to that minor aside, what does it say about Barrera and Pacquiao?s futures?
I am always nervous about making someone a P4P top candidate on the basis of one night?s work, but it is hard to resist crediting Pacquiao after the demolition of the most highly regarded featherweight champion of recent years.
It is sometimes hard to tell in upsets like this, whether the victor won because of what they did or what their opponent didn?t or couldn?t do, or whether the answer falls between these two stools. Was Pacquiao the irresistible force, or had Barrera ceased to be the immovable object?
I personally would be very wary of labelling Barrera as being ?over the hill.? If he were in decline, then I would perhaps question his focus and desire more than his physical capability. Barrera has been a professional fighter since the age of 16, and was in his 61st fight this past Saturday. You have to wonder whether the measure of success he has achieved has robbed him of some of his once fierce intensity.
In his post-fight interview Barrera intimated that a number of distractions had marred his preparation prior to the fight. There were the forest fires which affected his training camp at Southern California?s Big Bear mountain, and secondly worries (unfounded or not) that his fight might be cancelled after revelations about his 1997 cranial surgery which had been heralded by the recent split with his manager. They are not the best augurs for one of the biggest fights of your career, and a fight that could have put Barrera on an even higher plateau.
Whilst these events cannot have been helpful to his preparations, I would suggest that it was his inability to deal with these x-factors and the inability to push himself, if anything, which was the problem. Barrera, though not usually an overly muscular fighter, did look a little soft to me; perhaps he cut some corners in training?
Barrera appeared strangely listless and tired early. However, a major part of the reason for that was the phenomenal pace and intensity with which Pacquiao fought. As if that weren?t enough, Barrera?s counterpunching style was negated by the incredible hand speed, which enabled Pac Man to drill Barrera to body and head, with relative impunity. The body attack in particular was used judiciously in setting up his whipping hooks and lancing straight shots to the head. By the last third of the fight, he had pummelled Marco to a virtual standstill, and the champion?s arms were down by his sides instinctively protecting his battered ribs.
Was Barrera surprised by the strength of Manny?s challenge? You betcha. After all, what was there in Pacquiao?s body of work that suggested he had the ability to do what he did to Barrera? Certainly not in his last fight, against Emmanuel Lucero. Pacquiao looked like a good hurtful puncher, but he didn?t show the game he brought against Barrera, for which trainer Freddie Roach must take some credit for polishing off the rough edges and imparting boxing smarts to add to his natural gifts.
Maybe just maybe Barrera wasn?t as dominant as we first thought. As popular as he was, and as highly regarded, whispers had it for some time amongst pundit and fans alike that his latest results against veterans on the slide, Johnny Tapia and Kevin Kelley, flattered to deceive. Indeed, in his second fight against Morales, he looked like the loser to me, and the first bout between the two Mexicans I had scored as a draw on first viewing. Nobody could say Barrera dominated Morales, and really he hadn?t been in anything approaching a hard fight against a strong, hungry and determined fighter who was at or approaching his peak like Pacquiao since then.
Nothing Barrera had done in recent times could really have prepared him for the sort of whirlwind of ferocity that Manny subjected him to. Is it possible that second time around he would be able to do any better? I?m not convinced there is. Barrera does have a rematch clause, whether or not he chooses to exercise that right is another matter.
Historically, it would have to be said that in the two rematches that Barrera has had, against Junior Jones and Morales, he did not do markedly better than the first time around. Even though he fought Morales with different tactics in their rematch, boxing rather than brawling, he didn?t manage to dominate the fight, and most felt he got something of a sympathy decision from the judges.
More important than that historical perspective I don?t think Barrera has ever had to face anyone with Manny?s potent combination of speed and power. At times Pacquiao moved like a flyweight, and punched like a lightweight. He seemed to be able to dart in and out of range and create angles at will, and the speed of his combinations and deftness of his movement made Barrera seem like a statue.
So what now for Barrera? I have a hunch, and no more than that, that this result may herald the retirement of Barrera. My record with predictions hasn?t been too good of late but this defeat must have been very hard for Barrera to take. Not since he was given an abject boxing lesson by Jones back in 1996 has he been on the wrong end of such a humiliating defeat. Barrera must have thought that with his new counter-puncher style, that would never happen again.
Maybe he will jump at a rematch against Manny, and it would be a major feat if he managed to overcome him. That aside, I still think that Barrera may have the beating of the other men in the division, even Marquez, but so much depends on what effect that loss will have on his will to continue, and his confidence if he does. Nobody has ever crushed him quite so systematically. His heart was taken away to the extent that he was looking for a way out from the referee, in his fight with Pacquiao, and maybe he will remain hollow furthermore.
At the age of nearly 30, with millions in the bank and 14 years as a professional behind him, does he need it any more? We?ll know soon enough. Although I have a feeling he may call it a day, I wouldn?t write him off if he does continue.
For Pacquiao, no such questions will surface for many years yet.
Big nights and big fights test a fighter?s true mettle, some ossify and crumble under the pressure, and others produce their real best, show their real innards. Manny is just that kind of fighter. He took a big step up in class, faced off with, and destroyed a living legend in the ring, and any man who can do that is a potential great, but it?s not time to screw the plaque on the wall in the hall of fame just yet. Luckily for us, there are almost certainly many big fights yet to come in his career, which will form the basis of his legacy; this is not his last or only defining moment.
Who is next on his dance card? He is without doubt the hottest property in the featherweight division, the incipient star; he needs a challenge to cement his legacy, with or without Barrera?s co-operation. He has a big future, and certainly, a matchup with the other man mentioned as possibly being the best in the division, Juan Manuel Marquez, is a delectable proposition. Marquez, like Pacquiao is young, hungry, and loves to win fights inside the distance. (What a fight that would produce!)
A fight between these two would surely be big box office with this performance, and perhaps even bigger if Marquez can turn in another performance as impressive as his blowout of Manuel Medina, which in the light of Medina?s success subsequently against Scott Harrison, looks better every passing day.
It is hard not to envisage Pacquiao dominating the division if he gets past Marquez. I cannot see Michael Brodie or Injin Chi (who both fought to a draw recently for the WBC title) beating him, though either man would give an excellent account of themselves for as long as it lasted, and there is nobody else in the 126-pound ranks who has the tools to hang with Manny now that Morales has moved on up to the 130-pound division.
A cautionary note however, as journalist Steve Bunce rightly pointed out on the BBC coverage, the irony is, than in beating the ?best? featherweight in the world, Manny doesn?t have a title, as there were no official belts on the line. Which belt holder is going to want to put their titles on the line against a man who has nothing to offer, other than the prospect of a savage beating for their troubles? There will be some difficult moments ahead in negotiating deals with networks to put together attractive packages and convincing people that they want to fight Manny.
The featherweight division has been blessed with some very special fights and fighters even during my lifetime as a boxing fan ? Eusebio Pedroza and Barry McGuigan, Azumah Nelson and Jeff Fenech ? and in Pacquiao and Barrera?s fight we may have witnessed the passing of the torch from the late great to the next great featherweight champion.
