The most fascinating postscript to boxing’s hi-tech night in the stupendous Cowboys Stadium came from a legendary Dallas football star.
Michael Irvin, the record-breaking wide receiver who helped the Cowboys win two Super Bowls in the 90s, stepped back awestruck from watching Manny Pacquiao throw more than 1,200 punches in 12 rounds to overwhelm the bigger and seemingly stronger Joshua Clottey in their world welterweight title fight.
‘Wow,’ said Irvin. ‘Wow. This stadium takes your breath away but Manny just blows you over. He’s incredible.
‘NFL players think we train hard and some of the big guys who tackled me were the hardest men I would ever want to run into. But you wouldn’t catch me in the ring with Mr Pacquiao.’
That provoked speculation that if only those giants of the gridiron were not so richly rewarded for playing their version of football, America would boast more than enough heavyweights to break Europe’s stranglehold on boxing’s flagship division.
‘You know,’ said Irvin, ‘I’ve never thought about that before now, but it’s true.’
So how would Irvin himself have fared in the ring, since he stands well over 6ft and is still in impressively muscular physical condition?
Punishing: Pacquiao trains in Grapevine, Texas, ahead of the Clottey fight
‘Oh, no,’ he said. ‘Not me. There is no hiding place in there. In a football game I can take a rest when our defence are on the field, when the special teams come on, when I need treatment, when they want my back-up to have a run.
‘But in the ring you’re on your own for every second of every three-minute round. There’s no hiding place. There’s no team around you to give you a breather if you’re struggling. Manny must train like crazy.’
Screen stars: Pacquiao and Clottey are beamed across the Cowboys Stadium on a huge screen suspended above the ring
So he does. Work-outs open to the public and media usually see boxers going through the motions and then signing autographs and giving interviews. In Dallas, just three days before the fight, Pacquiao put in a ferociously intense session which lasted more than two hours. After that, he went off to rehearse with his band in readiness for the concert at which he sang for late into the nigh following his defeat of Clottey.
Irvin declared that he had found a ring idol to succeed the iconic Mexican he admired for many years, saying: ‘Millions of people adored Muhammad Ali. Me too. But for me, Julio Cesar Chavez was the greatest of all. It just seemed that he never stopped fighting.’
Indeed it didn’t.
Chavez won 107 of his 115 professional bouts. The winning start to his career, 87 before his controversial draw with Pernell Whitaker, is an all-time record.
‘I see so much of Chavez in Pacquiao,’ said Irvin. ‘Until now I would have assumed that Floyd Mayweather Jnr would beat him on size alone if they ever fight. Now I’m leaning the other way.
‘It’s not only that Manny throws so much leather. I suspect there is also a matter of confidence. Whatever the rights and wrongs of their dispute over drugs testing, it was Mayweather who brought up the whole issue and blocked their fight. That tells me he may be anxious about the fight.
‘So much depends on confidence. We had players in our great Dallas team who became different men once they found true belief in their own ability. Others fell away when the doubts set in.
‘If you’re faced with a huge challenge the only chance is to walk towards it, not run away.’
For the Pacman and the entire Filipino nation, there are no doubts.
Irvin understands why: ‘If you’re looking for greatness it is to be found in the athlete who is not only massively talented but works phenomenally hard. That’s Manny Pacquiao. That’s the wow-factor.’
