CAGAYAN DE ORO CITY — In boxing, the more disciplined, determined and hungrier boxer almost always prevails in a fight between two boxers of equal talent. The hungrier boxer is more focused and draws extra strength from his determination to win.
Such was the case in the fight between IBF Super bantamweight champion Manny Pacquiao and the Mexican boxing icon Marco Antonio Barrera.
Team Pacquiao was harmonious. They were united in one mission—to destroy the myth that was Barrera and earned for Pacquiao the recognition he deserves as one of the best boxer in his weight division.
It helped a lot that Pacquiao was installed as the prohibitive underdog. It fired his determination even more to prove he is the better boxer.
More than anything else, it was the hunger for recognition, not money, I suppose, at least it was true then, that motivated Pacquiao in that crucial fight.
Barrera on the other hand was confident of himself. He perhaps thought (wrongly, as it turned out) that Pacquiao was just going to be another routine fight. He had also some distractions, as he claimed having to change venue in the middle of his training due to the forest fire raging near his training camp.
The equation, it seems has now changed.
Pacquiao is now basking in the glory, money and perks of being recognized as the newest boxing sensation. He is a boxing hero in his own country, an idol to thousands of boxing fans around the world that was amazed by his methodical and cruel destruction of Barrera.
Team Pacquiao is not as harmonious as it was before the Barrera fight. Trainer Freddie Roach is in a verbal tussle with Murad Muhammad, the US boxing promoter of Pacquiao and in fact was reported to have quit the team. There are also talks that the contract of Pacquiao’s manager is not going to be renewed.
Pacquiao, in the meanwhile is enjoying himself accepting product endorsements, guesting in TV shows and making movies.
I remember an interview with Manny Pacquiao on national television before the Barrera fight wherein he bared his ultimate ambition as a boxer. He had just won the IBF Super bantamweight title.
Pacquiao categorically stated his ultimate ambition then was to fight and defeat Marco Antonio Barrera. Puede na akong mag retire after the Barrera fight (I could retire after defeating Barrera), he said then. Has Pacquiao still enough fire left in him to scale greater heights in boxing or is it already all for money?
The Filipino world boxing champion may not have peaked yet as a boxer, skills wise, but it seems his ambition as a boxer has leveled off after the Barrera fight. It seems all talks now are only, about which fight could make more money.
It is in fact the core of all the misunderstanding in the Team Pacquiao—money.
Barrera, on the other hand is licking his wounds. But he has not given up boxing. Instead he has set his mind for a rematch with Pacquiao.
While admitting Pacquiao was the better man the night of their fight, the Mexican boxing icon has promised a different Barrera should the rematch materialized. There is again fire in his eyes. He is once again a hungry fighter with one consummate ambition—exact revenge on Pacquiao and regain his pride.
A second Pacquiao-Barrera fight indeed would be interesting and promises to be another action-packed encounter between two ring matadors.
But first, Pacquiao must mend his fences. If he is to remain competitive in the exacting sports of boxing and retire at 30, the age he has set for himself, he has to stay focused and keep the fire of his ambition burning.
