LEMLUNAY, Maasim in Sarangani – Except for a moment or two, Manny was perfect from the opening bell, slipping in and out and launching his flurries from all angles to once again disprove a sports theorem that a bigger man pitted against a smaller one will always prevail ? especially when the disparity in weight is at least 15 pounds.
With Manny, however, conventional wisdom does not always prevail although he stayed true to form in totally annihilating Antonio Margarito over 12 rounds in one of the most lopsided super welterweight fights in recent memory.
By the fifth round, Margarito?s face turned from a Mafioso?s feared hitman into a bloody popping corn ? his right eye swollen from the accurate left bombs from Manny Pacquiao.
By then, Margarito was also reduced into a stalking wounded gladiator trying to draw a desperate engagement that he himself did not believe he could win.
It all started in the first round when ? despite his glaring advantage in bulk ? Manny sent him home a message that the Filipino?s punches are loaded with bad, real bad, intentions.
The first meaningful punch he connected was a right hook that hit flush on the jaw of Margarito. It did not bring him down. In fact none of Manny?s punches did. But it caught his attention and took away all his confidence.
By the third round, Margarito?s vaunted aggressiveness disappeared. He was already reluctant to launch his attacks and unload his bombs.
Pacquiao was a picture of perfection all night long, connecting with his accurate combinations and dumbfounding Margarito with his hand speed. Did I not miss the foot speed?
There were brief interludes that Margarito was able to push Manny into the ropes but he almost always ended up on the shorter end of the exchanges.
In round five, Manny displayed his own brand of defense, holding up his hands while blocking the Mexican?s punches. Then he sprang from the ropes and engaged Margarito in the center of the ring. Manny threw a flurry of punches capped with a left straight that staggered Margarito back. The Mexican looked ready to go down.
This was to be repeated in the following rounds except in the sixth and eight rounds when Margarito was able to put up a semblance of competitiveness.
Margarito appeared to have hurt Manny with a powerful hook to the body but the Filipino wisely danced from harm?s way. In the eight, Manny got tagged with several left and right straights but came back throwing his own flurry of punches. They stood in the middle of the ring throwing bombs at each other as the bell sounded. It was the only round I was inclined to give to Margarito.
By the ninth, Margarito?s right eye was almost shut closed. Manny appeared to coast long and displayed his excellent ringmanship running circles on Margarito while occasionally piercing the Mexican?s already porous defense with probing right and left straights.
It was downhill for Manny from thereon. In the eleventh and twelfth rounds, Manny was almost begging referee Laurence Cole to stop the fight who in turn twice stopped the fight to check if Margarito?s right vision was still ok.
It was okay but the fighter was no longer into the contest.
In the end, it was yet another display of beautiful domination for the Filipino lefty who became the first member of his country?s Congress to capture a world boxing crown ? an eight one at that.
