One is the nephew of OPBF 130-lb king Randy Suico. The other is the spitting image of pound-for-pound featherweight king Manny Pacquiao. And when their paths crossed last Monday at the New Gallera de Mandaue in Cebu, PHILIPPINES, it sure was a 4-round fight for the ages Randy Suico and Manny Pacquiao will be proud of.
In the night’s most applauded encounter, Apol Suico of Wakee Salud Stable came back from a first-round knockdown, put Manny Pacquoan on the seat of his pants in the second stanza, and the duo duked it out in the last two rounds as if their lives were at stake in a preliminary fight that would put a lot of Las Vegas scraps to shame.
The Stonewall fighter Pacquoan, who fights like the small version of pound-for-pound king Manny Pacquiao, started well in the opening round like a house on fire, attacking the Randy Suico miniature with body shots and used a right cross in the dying seconds of the round to deck Suico. The crowd went wild, as well as the Dean of Philippine sportswriters Quinito Henson who was at ringside covering the show for Fistorama together with the Inquirer’s Al Mendoza and Ed Piczon.
Pacquoan, however, took a knee in the following round after Suico retaliated with a series of shots to the face. The rest of the rounds were real wars, before Suico took a close but unanimous decision win.
Apol Suico and Manny Pacquoan, two of the best newcomers in the business of prizefighting, will be here to stay. Watch out for these names.
