BOXING is supposed to be the art of self-defense.
But to Pacquiao, that art is non-existent anymore.
He has proven it again against Miguel Cotto, whom he knocked out in the 12th in a fight that should have been stopped as early as the ninth.
In Pacquiao, D is not Defense but Defeat.
No defense can ever deflect his offense.
And, stunningly, it is his offense that makes his defense impregnable.
He has become faster than the wind, almost quicker than lightning, that no defense in the world could now stop him from wreaking havoc on anyone that crosses paths with him.
Big or small, it makes no difference.
De La Hoya, Hatton and Cotto. They were all big. And heavier. And frightening. They were all stopped by Pacquiao.
Barrera, Marquez, Morales and Diaz. They were, yes, small. But mostly terrible –as in “El Terrible” Morales. But save for Marquez, they were all likewise stopped by Pacquiao.
While he kept on stopping anyone who dared fight him the last 10 years or so, nobody has ever stopped Pacquiao since he lost silly in 1999 by a third-round knockout to Thai Medgoen Singsurat.
Boy, he should not have fought Singsurat but for the rules of boxing.
He had already lost his flyweight crown to Singsurat after failing to hit 112 pounds at the scales.
But Pacquiao had to go through the motions of the bout and, drained of energy for trying to make the required weight, he was limp as spaghetti and suffered his second knockout loss.
But with lessons learned, Pacquiao bounced back and went on to bamboozle the opposition like no other.
Along the way, he developed the fastest pair of fists–as lethal as a TNT and as swift as lightning.
As if by design, he bumped into Freddie Roach and, the minute they met at Roach’s Wild Card Gym in Los Angeles, they hit it off right away.
Together, they would form boxing’s most enduring partnership in nabbing six world titles and making Pacquiao the only fighter to score a perfect 7 of 7 insofar as winning championship belts in seven different weight classifications was concerned.
Against Pacquiao, defense has become extinct.
