The fourth, and probably the last, fight between two great ring warriors Rafael Marquez and Israel Vasquez underscores how boxing as a contact sports could be brutal and unforgiving.
While no one underwent life-threatening injuries, there is no doubt one of them came out a damaged good.
Marquez and Vasquez own one of boxing?s great trilogies. Their fourth encounter only added up to the legends of great sports rivalries.
They are two warriors who know what it takes to win ? for the love of the sports.
Vasquez, only 32 years old, may have donned his boxing gloves one last time in losing to a sudden third round technical knockout.
His face looking like a head of a bull gored by a matador and with his white pants painted in crimson red from nasty cuts around his brittle eyes, the three time world boxing champion took two years to heal his detached retina before obliging to a fourth meeting with Marquez whom he KO?d and decisioned after losing their first bout via a seventh round technical knockout.
Vasquez has nothing more to prove. He will go down as one of the best bantamweights and featherweights in his era despite losing to Marquez Sunday (Philippine time).
Perhaps the abrupt ending was a fitting finale to his storied boxing career that should not end in tragedy.
Marquez, too, deserved the win for being the better man the fourth time around.
Which brings us to our very own Manny Pacquiao.
Manny is only 31 but has fought more fights than both Marquez and Vasquez have ever had in their careers.
While Manny has not received as much punishment as the two had inflicted against each other, the Filipino boxing icon has shown vulnerability to cuts.
Manny?s face was a gory mess when he lost to Erik Morales during their first encounter.
He was cut several times against Juan Manuel Marquez, elder brother of Rafael. He was cut by headbutts by the late Agapito Sanchez and Jorge Solis.
Boxing is a sport that makes your eyebrows and eyelids thinner as you log in more rounds, notwithstanding the accumulative effects of the punches that your head could only take.
Boxing, too, is the kind of sports where overstaying your welcome could be paralyzing if not humiliating.
One does not have to look beyond Muhammad Ali, boxing?s iconic figure.
Ali is afflicted with Parkinson?s disease, a debilitating
illness common among boxers who absorbed punches more than what their body could take.
Manny is far from being a future Muhammad Ali with Parkinson?s disease but it is a possibility that should not be lost in him.
Manny had already achieved his cherished dream of becoming a congressman. Only a superbout with Floyd Mayweather Jr stands in the way for Manny?s eventual retirement from boxing.
Give or take two or three fights and that should be it for Manny ? with or without Floyd.
For the love of the sports and for himself, Manny should plan his retirement now.
