HIS TENACIOUSNESS and footwork failed to impress the fight judges. But a couple of well-rehearsed words spoken in the local dialect earned Mexican Oscar Larios the appreciation of the hometown crowd.
In the end, Larios proved his little Tagalog was equal to his big fighting heart.
“Salamat, Pilipinas,” he said graciously over the microphone after losing a 12-round decision to Filipino ring hero Manny Pacquiao yesterday at the Araneta Coliseum.
The huge crowd, 12,000 more or less, rewarded the gladiator from Guadalajara a ringing applause.
A few minutes earlier in the final round, that same throng had roared wildly after Pacquiao knocked Larios down for the second time in the fight.
“He is a great champion,” said Larios of Pacquiao, repeating the compliment during the post-fight press conference at the Big Dome gazebo where both fighters confessed to some benign disobedience which nonetheless had dire results.
“Larios tried to knock Pacquiao out immediately after he got him in trouble in the third round,” said Rafael Mendoza, Larios? promoter. “He should?ve kept on boxing instead of trying to put Manny away.”
Pacquiao may have wanted to do some crowd entertaining ala Muhammad Ali and wound up nearly getting mourned over.
“I didn?t see Manny fighting until after the sixth round,” said Pacquiao?s trainer Freddie Roach, who had predicted Larios wouldn?t survive past six rounds.
“He was coasting, trying to give the crowd its due.”
Gasps of horror came from the crowd, made up of average and affluent fight fans, government officials, movie and television personalities, athletes and media people, after Pacquiao appeared to wobble in the ropes after absorbing a series of stunning combinations from Larios.
Mercifully, Pacquiao recovered and his compatriots exhaled with relief.
But Larios had succeeded in stripping away Pacquiao?s invincibility armor, exposing his vulnerability to a wicked right hand.
The crowd sensed a shift in the struggle.
And even as Pacquiao resumed his entertaining ways, the public henceforth became wary of the dancing and jabbing visitor.
Pacquiao?s sporadic bursts of attacks were greeted with tentative applause, and the air, once thick with optimism, turned heavy with trepidation as the rounds stretched on unpredictably.
Until that last round when Larios hit the deck a second time.
“Di ko inapura para sumaya ang mga kababayan ko,” said Pacquiao during the press conference.
And did they come away thrilled with the slam-bang.
Singer Bituin Escalante set the tone for the fight with her powerful rendition of the National Anthem, and by not exhorting “Pacman” to fight after hitting the last note unlike her counterpart in the last Pacquiao fight.
Michael Buffer, flown in reportedly for ,000, then lent the WBC International superfeatherweight fight an air of a legitimate world championship by blaring out his signature “Let?s get ready to rumble!” introduction.
Dapper in a white tuxedo, black tie and dark trousers, Buffer seemed impatient at times at the length it took both fighters to come out of their locker rooms, with the theme to Sylvester Stallone?s “Rocky” played back on and on.
Real estate inside the Big Dome soared to record heights overnight, with a square meter of floor area, costing a couple of hundreds pesos four days ago when Red Bull was battling San Miguel in Game 6 of the PBA semifinals, getting sold for tens of thousands if one wanted a seat 10 meters away from the ring.
Crowd control also went out the window with the arrival of high-ranking government officials whose entourage swept imperiously through secured areas upon their arrival.
