A LOSS by Manny Pacquiao tonight could be as devastating as a disaster.
But don’t worry, said Lenny de Jesus, Pacquiao’s cut man from Puerto Rico, who said he also came for a mercy mission and could stitch up the Thai fighter at the other corner of the ring tonight.
Pacquiao, 25, stakes his Ring Magazine featherweight title against Fahsan 3K Battery of Thailand in today’s Yanig sa Taguig.
Fahsan, 30, had originally planned to run in the first four rounds to induce exhaustion before tearing at his famous foe.
Not anymore, said the Thai fighter, who confirmed yesterday he would bang it up with Pacquiao right at the first bell.
“There’s no hope in running, we lose if we do that. It’s not Fahsan’s style, he’s not a boxer but a pure fighter, he stands up and slugs it out,” said Jimmy Chachotohang, Fahsan’s manager.
So it will be fighter against fighter, said the Thai manager, because Pacquiao’s style is similar to Fahsan’s.
Perfect, said De Jesus who has been working the Philippine corner since Pacquiao’s rise to world stardom three years ago.
Walking into a wall
“If he (Fahsan) comes out to fight, he would walk into a wall,” De Jesus predicted. “I may have to sew him up.”
The Puerto Rican, who first worked with Pacquiao when the RP hero stopped Lehlo Ledwabah for the world super bantamweight crown in Las Vegas three years ago, was present in yesterday’s chaotic weigh-in at the UCC Coffee Shop at The Fort inside the Global City in Taguig.
Fahsan, visibly smaller, weighed 124 pounds.
Pacquiao breezed past the scales at 125 pounds, then flexed to bare bristling, metal-like contours in the belly section.
It was the same weight he had when he met Juan Manuel Marquez and Pacquiao was quick to claim he felt as strong as he did in Las Vegas last May.
Again, Pacquiao refused to make any prediction, saying he would just do his very best and dedicate the fight to his countrymen, mainly the poor victims of the calamitous floodings in Quezon province.
Appetite for knockout
But try as he did, he failed to conceal his boiling appetite for a knockout.
“Huwag kang magulat kung matapos sa kanan (Don’t be surprised if I floored him with a right)” the sensational southpaw from GenSan told the Inquirer before boarding his red Expedition.
Unlike Pacquiao, 39-2-2, (30 KOs), who refused to brag about a knockout win, Fahsan, 44-71, stunned the fight presscon Thursday when he announced he would create a sensation by stopping Pacquiao.
Fahsan also claimed he knows of a hidden Pacquiao weakness which he would exploit inside the ring starting at 9.
The unified rules will be in effect in the 12-round title battle of southpaws, meaning there will be no three-knockdown rule and no fighter could be saved by the bell.
Assigned to referee the fight is Ferdinand Estrella. Veteran Bruce McTavish and newcomers Epi Almeda and Ricardo Canlas are the ring judges.
Top RP super flyweight ‘Z’ Gorres will fight Fahsan’s stablemate while RP lightweight king Fernando Montilla defends his crown in the undercard.
