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Philippines, 24 Nov 2024 |
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Pacquiao destroys Morales physically, Division Mentally PhilBoxing.com Tue, 21 Nov 2006 It was supposed to be the fight of the year. The script was laid out like a miniature Rocky fight. Manny Pacquiao, Crown jewel of the South Pacific, and Erik "El Terrible" Morales to settle the score for supremacy in their epic trilogy. Morales won the first fight, only to have the tables turned in the rematch the following January by a violent tenth round knockout. With Morales' back against the wall and Pacquiao carrying the burden of expectation on his back, we were ready for an epic showdown of two of the baddest little men to lace them up in those divisions. Well, somebody forgot to tell Pacquiao this was supposed to be a competitive affair. From the outset, it was all Pacquiao. After a brisk, but uneventful first round, Pacquiao dropped Morales with what was a sizzling left cross that left Morales dazed and shocked. The counter shot came while Morales was staging a dramatic rally that culminated in him tasting the canvas, which cannot be good for your confidence. Morales attempted to return fire but failed to get anything significant done. By the third round, it was all target practice. Pacquiao was dangerously accurate with both hands, and Morales could do little to stem the tide. Midway through the third round, Pacquiao connected with a brutal left hand that caught the Tijuana star on the point of the chin, dropping him and sapping the will out of the legendary warrior. Morales elected to stage one last desperado standoff in hopes of salvaging the already disastrous experience. Everytime Morales made an attempt at an offensive gain, he was met with harder, faster combos from the General Santos City pugilist. The sand was spilling out of the bottom of Morales' hourglass and pouring onto the floor in front of over 18,000 rabid fans. A huge straight left cross dropped Morales for the third time in the bout, and Morales wisely elected to take the 10 count against the insistence of his cornermen. It was a case of one fighter being at the pinnacle of his vast talents and the other man being a pick pocket in a lineup of serial killers. The weapon that Morales based the backbone of his win in the first fight, the left jab, was completely nullified by Pacquiao's ability to counter with an impressive right hook. If you push a left jab at a southpaw, that tends to happen. "Awhile back I started working on Manny's right hook and I said someday his right hook will be his best punch", Pacquiao's trainer Freddie Roach stated. "I think that day is here." Pacquiao was just too much for an Erik Morales who seemingly had it in his mind that he wasn't going to win this fight from the first exchange of the fight. Had Pacquiao not lost the first fight, it's likely he would not have been able to adjust his style to become the consummate brawler that he has developed into. The first time they got it in, Pacquiao was too one-dimensional, letting the roullette wheel fly with all his chips on the left hand. In the rematch, the "Gen San Slugger" unveiled a more diverse attack plan, a direct consequence of Manny Pacquiao's constant development as a more complete fighter. Before every major fight, Boxingscene's staff puts out a prediction article giving reasons why they think the fight will go the way it will. In my forecast, I stated "this fight just reminds me of the Pryor-Arguello fights, a great featherweight on the slide making his last stand against a vicious predator." What stood out about the second fight was the utter viciousness of the close, give and take combat that was fairly even until the older fighter blinked first. Similar to the first encounter between Aaron Pryor and Alexis Arguello, Pryor's unrelenting attack was too much a load for the Nicaraguan legend to handle. In the second Pryor-Arguello encounter, Arguello fought as hard as he could until he had exhausted his will and elected to stay down while still bearing his wits. Almost to the script, Morales followed suit, with the only deviation being that Morales lasted just three rounds. While reviewing the post fight press conference, I was reminded of Arguello's famous line "I don't want to risk my life." Every boxer is human, even Erik Morales. I picked Pacquiao in eight, showing more respect to Erik Morales than would the Pacman. What now remains to be seen is whether Morales' team will do the right thing and advise their charge to call it quits. Morales is a future first ballot Hall of Famer with title betls in three divisions. He will never have to worry about money and having lost four of his last five by increasingly wider margins, now is is the time to do so. Erik's father and trainer, Jose Morales, should do the right thing and advise his son to hang them up while he still has the choice to do so. Morales was not definite, as no fighter should be in the wake of such a devastating knockout, about his future prospects. He assured that should he continue fighting, he would stage a future bout in Tijuana. The question now is, who would want to fight Pacquiao? He has a knockout victory over the consensus number two guy in the division, Marco Antonio Barrera, who it would be hard to imagine ever wanting a return bout with the slugger who ran him out of the Alamodome in eleven rounds three years ago. Barrera has a March PPV date tabbed for HBO, and the prospect of a rematch between the two would certainly be one of the biggest fights in boxing right now. Given the resignation that Barrera exhibited midway through their first fight, one would give credence to the possibility of that fight resembling the exhibition Pacquiao put on Saturday night. Note my ommission of Juan Manuel Marquez, whose decision to face inexperienced Cebu City native Jimrex Jaca may be a way of him dealing with his haunting regrets of his battle with Manny Pacquiao two years ago. The most dangerous fight for Pacquiao would be a showdown with the undefeated Dominican superstar Joan Guzman. Guzman is the claimant to something called the World Boxing Organization Junior Lightweight belt. Like Pacquiao, Guzman is a former 122 pound titlist who moved up recently to outslick Jorge Barrios for his alphabelt strap. Guzman himself has extended a challenge to the Pacman contingent upon his victory in December against an as yet unnamed opponent. "I think he beats Pacquiao", claims fellow former Dominican Olympian Jerson Ravelo. "I think his style frustrates Pacquiao, plus he can take a shot." Ravelo, who will be fighting on the undercard of Guzman's upcoming fight in December set to stage in the Dominican Republic, goes on to cite Pacquiao's difficulties handling the rough combat that the late Agapito Sanchez was able to exert on the Mindinao Mauler. A fight with Guzman may be difficult to make given the politics of promotional ties. In the post-fight press conference after the third Morales fight, Bob Arum announced that he had retained the rights to promote Pacquiao's next four year, nullifying the deal that Pacquiao signed with Golden Boy Promotions just weeks before this fight. With the lawsuits that are certain to fly, as well as the long standing feud between Oscar De La Hoya and the former federal prosecutor turned Top Rank promoter, matching Pacquiao with Guzman, or any other members of De La Hoya's stable may be harder to make than Ray Robinson-Archie Moore. What may provide the most volatile, mouth-watering affair for Pacquiao is outlaw slugger Edwin Valero. Valero won the WBA version of the 130 pound championship with a tenth round knockout of Vincente Mosquera. The Venezuelan bomber who has disposed of 18 of his 20 opponents in the first round is a potential catalyst to the kind of Foreman-Lyle knockdown, drag 'em out war that define a legend's career. Only problem is, Valero is banned from fighting in the United States because of a head injury he suffered in a motorcycle accident a few years ago. Valero now resides in Tokyo, Japan, and may find himself in position to stage a big homecoming fight with Pacquiao in Manila, where Pacquiao is the kind of Elvis-like star that could attract over 20,000 spectators easily. Hell, after the circumstances in which the WBC allowed Julian Jackson to fight with detached retinas as long as Don King promoted his contests, I wouldn't be too surprised if we saw this fight made in Las Vegas. Brain injuries be damned. The most startling pre-fight statistic was the overnight weigh-ins that showed Pacquiao weighing in at 144 and Morales at 139, giving Pacquiao a 5 pound weight advantage. Of all of the things that could have occurred, it was very difficult to envision that figure coming to fruition. Pacquiao's 14 pound weight gain overnight suggests that it wouldn't be at all ridiculous to rule out a possible move up in weight to the lightweight limit of 135. There, Pacquiao would face the most danger available and an audacious opportunity for him to prove his greatness. Lightweight champion Joel "El Cepillo" Casamayor is a tricky puzzle that the Filipino bomber would have to approach like a rubix cube. A fellow southpaw, Casamayor is a strong counter puncher with all the tricks in the book and the guile to know enough that he'd have to rough up the Pacman to get him out of his envelope. Casamayor is coming off of an upset victory over Diego Corrales in the final chapter of his own trilogy. With as much momentum coming forward from such an accomplishment, Casamayor would have to be considered a live underdog. As skilled as the two division champion Casamayor is, his advanced ring age would be his biggest detriment against a still fresh lion like Pacquiao. The antidote may be an even younger, if not as proven Juan Diaz. Diaz, an undefeated Houston native who is of Mexican heritage, presents a style clash that is nothing short of explosive. Diaz has yet to face an opponent with the kind of blinding speed that Pacquiao provides in abundance, so an adjustment must be made on Diaz's part. He also lacks the kind of punching power that could dissuade a relentless brawler like a Manny Pacquiao. "Come up to the lightweight division and I'll give him a chance", was the challenge Diaz offered Pacquiao in an interview this past October. Diaz continues, "I think he's a great champion, a great fighter. He puts alot of pressure, he fights with alot of intensity." I don't go back far enough to recall Filipino legend Gabriel "Flash" Elorde, actually at 19 I don't recall seeing a prime Luisito Espinosa in action. Grainy films of Elorde and Pancho Villa do not reveal a phenomenon nearly as breath-taking as Manny Pacquiao. It is nearly impossible for us in today's society to measure Elorde's victory over Sandy Saddler or Villa's conquest of Jimmy Wylde in it's proper context against Pacman. What I can assess correctly is that we are living in an unprecedented era of Filipino boxing, where, as Larry Merchant once described, this "typhoon from across the Pacific" has become a pioneer to fighters from the republic comprised of 7,107 islands in the South Asia. Contemporaries Rey "Boom Boom" Bautista and Jimrex Jaca, as well as Filipino-American upstarts like Brian Viloria and J.V. Tuazon, have found doors opened and a new market by which to flourish thanks to the cross-over appeal of Manny Pacquiao. Without the widespread attention drawn to the talent in the Philippines by Pacquiao's success, they would probably still be in Manila fighting Thais on short notice. The effect that Manny Pacquiao has had on the exposure that Filipino fighters receive from mainstream promoters has breathed new life into the boxing community over there, and inspired a rennaisance of a new generation of Pinoy pugs. Pacquiao is 27, and has three years of prime fighting left in his miniscule yet formidable frame. With the decline of De La Hoya, Mayweather claiming he's one fight from retirement, and Roy Jones delaying his Hall of Fame induction with his insistence on fighting silly fights, Manny Pacquiao is the future and present crossover star of boxing. He has the charm, the style, and the hot topic ethnicity to attract the big money and the big audience. Like all fighters who emerge in such a meteoric blazing glory, even the seemingly irrepressible Pacquiao will some day fizzle out as a candle whose wick has reached it's base. In the mean time, we can be assured that Pacquiao has given us all something to remember him by. Click here for a complete listing of columns by this author. Click here for a complete listing of this author's articles from different news sources. |
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