A WINNER even before the fight contract could be signed.
That’s Manny Pacquiao, in case you have forgotten.
And yes, you bet, Pacquiao will defeat Mexico’s Oscar Larios by knockout.
Larios is tailor-fit for Pacquiao since the Mexican loves to fight toe to toe. Larios having thrown the most punches in a single round in the 130-lb division – was it 1,620? – is a stat Pacquiao welcomes with open arms. It could only mean one thing: Larios loves to fight – a perfect trait that Pacquiao treats like dessert.
What round the knockout is going to happen, Pacquiao isn’t saying.
“No predictions for me,” said Pacquiao in Filipino during the press conference announcing the fight on Friday at ABS-CBN studios. “Let’s just say come and enjoy watching the fight. It’s for you, my beloved countrymen.”
Freddie Roach, Pacquiao’s American trainer, parrots Pacquiao’s line.
“I’m not saying what round it’s going to end,” said Roach, the only man Pacquiao listens to on fight matters. On money matters, leave that to Shelley Finkel, Pacquiao’s wealthy American manager who doesn’t think twice putting his ward in an expensive hotel suite, plasmaTV/jacuzzi and all, days before a fight.
“The fight is for 12 rounds,” said Roach. “We train for every single round. Every round could be a knockout round.”
If, until now, you still can’t believe Roach, you better start believing.
Roach it was who hugely helped polish Pacquiao’s raw power. From merely a pure brawler, Pacquiao has metamorphosed into a stylist; you saw that in full bloom in the last Morales fight, right?
Combine power and style and you have a perfect fighter in Pacquiao, almost in the mold already of such greats like Muhammad Ali, Sugar Ray Leonard, Marvelous Marvin Hagler and, to a certain extent, Oscar De La Hoya.
But more than that, it is Roach’s hypnotic power that has transformed Pacquiao into a mean, killing machine atop the ring. There is no single person other than Roach that has influenced Pacquiao’s mindset on fight strategies the last five years or so.
So, when talks flew wild and thick that Pacquiao won’t train in the US for the Larios fight, Roach, true to his calling, quickly made his move. He boarded the next available flight to Manila and, just hours upon landing, made Pacquiao change his mind.
So take heed. Pacquiao deciding to train in the US has virtually sealed doom for Larios. It is, to use a much-abused clich‚, a kiss of death for the Mexican.
Every person has a weakness. Pacquiao is a lover of life. He loves life’s perks such as the good time, which is but normal for one with a brutally sad, angry and hungry childhood.
A poor, stowaway kid at 14 now suddenly a millionaire at under-30, why, you can’t blame Pacquiao if, at times if not oftentimes, he indulges and goes bang-bang here and goes bang-bang there – if you know what I mean.
More to the point, Pacquiao loves billiards, cockfighting and late night binges on pleasures both good and bad. And yes, also wine and roses – again, if you know what I mean. All that is an athlete’s passport to self-destruction, a boxer’s surefire poison if taken in overdose which Pacquiao is prone to doing with Roach not close by. Thus, should Congress make Roach a Filipino, why, that’d be justified any time it’s done.
With Roach around, we have a winner in Pacquiao 99.99 percent of the time.
So to the moneyed, proceed and reserve your tickets now for that choice ringside seat at the Araneta Coliseum come July 2.
For me?
Well, I’ll join the queue for that precious free ticket at general admission offered by ABS-CBN. Just say when, what time and where, and I’ll come running.
Now, if Peter Musngi (hey, buddy, you did well anchoring the presscon on Friday) proves to be saintly once more and tells me to pick up my 2 tickets at a Bantay Bata Foundation outlet, I’ll gladly do it. If in the mood, I might even give one ticket to a tot of 13 or above from the BB Foundation who may yet consider Pacquiao his role model.
As a bonus, I’ll offer to chaperone the kid to the fight.
No big deal.
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FASTBREAK. The Fil-Estate Sports Foundation will hold the Manila Southwoods Tennis Academy, a pet project of chair Bob Sobrepena, on May 2-28 at Southwoods in Carmona. Accel, Metro Rail Transit, Wilson, Gaspeed Motor Shop and The Manila Times are supporting the tennis camp now on its eighth year. Call Len Gregorio at (046) 4300260) or Manny/Linda Tecson at (02) 938-9522/(02) 939-48-51 for more details…Please pray for the soul of Paul Beltran, the kind-hearted husband of my niece, Chatty Boluso. Chatty is the daughter of my Ate Lourdes from Calauag, Quezon, and Roxas City. Paul died on April 27 and his remains lie at St. Peter along Quezon Blvd., Q.C. Interment has yet to be announced.
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