THIS is what I’ve been thinking all day long yesterday.
For Erik “El Terible” Morales to score a sure victory over Manny “Pac Man” Pacquiao today, he should have enlisted the services of Angelo Dundee.
Remember him, the guy with aviator glasses and with a parrot beak for a nose?
Angelo Dundee is best remembered as the trainer of Muhammad Ali.
Ali, in case there is an 8-year-old kid boxing buff out there reading this piece today, is the greatest boxer of all time.
But I remember Angelo Dundee not as Ali’s trainer, though.
I remember Angelo Dundee as the trainer of Sugar Ray Leonard when Leonard beat the legendary Marvelous Marvin Hagler in 1987 to capture the world middleweight crown.
OK, a flashback.
Leonard had come out of a five-year retirement, listened to every word that Angelo Dundee told him and went on to steal a split decision over Hagler in 12 rounds that stunned the world but not Angelo Dundee.
“Box, box, move and glide,”
Dundee kept telling Leonard in the corner during that classic Leonard-Hagler fight. “Don’t trade shots with this guy. That’s a no-no.”
Leonard ought to listen. He was fighting not a human being but a killing machine: Hagler hadn’t lost in 11 years.
Today, Morales could also be fighting a killing machine in Pacquiao: The Pac Man hadn’t lost in his last eight fights, winning seven of them by KO and drawing the last one last May against Juan Manuel Marquez, Morales’ countryman. And, like Hagler, Pacquiao is also a southpaw. In boxing, the hardest to beat is a southpaw.
I’m saying these things because all indications point to a Pacquiao victory by knockout over Morales in the fight scheduled for 12 rounds at the MGM Garden Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada.
That is so because for one thing, Morales is not a known boxer, glider, or dancer if you will. He loves to mix it up, which is the stuff that makes Pacquiao at his deadliest.
For another, between the two, Pacquiao is concededly the stronger puncher. This is attested by Pacquiao’s better percentage in the KO department: The Pac Man has knocked out 31 of his 39 victims, Morales 34 of 47.
Yes, it’s true Morales hasn’t been knocked out in 49 fights, and he has fought practically the best in his division, including his bitter rival, Marco Antonio Barrera. In fact, his two defeats were merely on points — both to Barrera — the last one coming only some months ago via a split decision.
But still, as I keep saying here, no one, not even Morales, can withstand the rock-hard punches of Pacquiao, especially Pac Man’s left shot. In my estimation, Pacquiao could make Morales today his third Mexican victim in a row to kiss the canvas.
The first two Mexicans that Pacquiao had felled were no patsies: He knocked out Barrera in 11 rounds in 2003, and then decked Marquez three times in the first round in May 2004 in a fight that ended in a controversial split draw after 12 rounds.
I’ve always insisted that once Pacquiao connects, the receiver will, 99.99 percent of the time, land on the seat of his pants.
But Pacquiao will have to make it happen in the first five, even six, rounds. Otherwise, Pacquiao could be in serious trouble if the fight lasts the distance. Not necessarily because of Morales’ world-renowned ring savvy but, more dangerously, because of the specter of a hometown decision.
Now if Morales, 28, had radically transformed his style from slugger to boxer and become the Sugar Ray Leonard of that 1987 fight with Marvin Marvelous Hagler, then that could be genuine trouble for Pacquiao, the 26-year-old former doughnut vendor from General Santos City.
The question is, did Morales resurrect Angelo Dundee? I mean, were there efforts to lure Angelo Dundee back to boxing?
Nah and none.
Now, can a masterpiece like Angelo “Michelangelo” Dundee be copied by Morales’ trainer for today’s fight?
I doubt.
If they did, the best that Morales can do is to produce a repro. And, alas, against Pacquiao, that’d merely amount to a poor imitation.
Like the Sistine Chapel and Mona Lisa, there’s only one Angelo Dundee. And a Sugar Ray Leonard can never be photo-copied, today and forever.
It had to be Pacquiao or I’d go nuts.
By knockout.
