Before a raucous crowd of 15,000, super featherweight Manny Pacquiao once again displayed his world-class boxing skills when he demolished Mexico’s Jorge “El Coloradito” Solis in the 8th round of the “Blazing Glory” brawl at The Alamodome in San Antonio, Texas, Saturday.
It was the first defeat for the Guadalajaran Solis in his entire nine-year professional boxing career, and it was Pacquiao who made it happen.
Manny unleashed a flurry of blazing lefts and rights and floored Solis twice. Solis counted out on the second fall, prompting the referee to stop the fight and sending The Alamodome to an explosion of cheers from Philippine flag-waving fans.
During the first five rounds, it did seem Manny was having difficulty containing Solis’ clumsy, yet power-packed style, and his fearsome ‘nothing-to-lose, everything-to-gain,’ posturing.
Solis is called “El Coloradito” because of his fondness for red in his boxing uniform and gear. He has, however, never faced an opponent of Manny’s class and caliber. Solis’ camp and fans, however, had hoped to wrestle the super featherweight title from the Filipino champion via an upset, after all the Mexican is a year younger, two inches taller, and a full three inches longer in reach than Manny’s.
And indeed, Solis used all these advantages to keep Manny at bay early in the fight and prevent the Filipino from capitalizing on the rawness of his combat experience.
Fight analysts nevertheless never doubted the fight would eventually belong to Manny. They conceded, however, that something ought to spark the Filipino dynamo to end the sparring-like charade he had played with Solis since the bell first rang.
That spark came in the form of an accidental head butt in the sixth round that opened up what otherwise was a small cut above Manny’s left eye. This probably enraged the Filipino champion, or at the very least, threatened his victory bid.
From the sevent round up to clock stoppage in the eighth, as Solis failed to recoup from his second plunge onto the canvass, the fans at The Alamodome and the thousands more worldwide watching on HBO’s pay-per-view saw how the Pacman devoured El Coloradito.
For Manny Pacquiao, the victory was all he needed, not only to assert his pound-for-pound supremacy that has unilaterally given him the international boxing community’s official title, “2006 Fighter of the Year.”
This 2007 ring victory augurs well for Manny’s electoral bid. He is seeking a congressional seat to represent the first district of South Cotabato in the Philippine midterm elections in May, a move that has seemingly driven a wedge between him and his fans. A few of his loyal followers even turned against him and wished Manny would lose against Solis in order to teach him a lesson.
Retired physician and a devout fan of Manny, Dr. Mario Espiritu of Huntsville, Texas, was elated to see him win, but remained hopeful he would reconsider his political ambition.
“At the back of my mind, I did not want a knockout victory for Manny but probably a draw, so he would hopefully come to his senses and just concentrate on his boxing career from thereon,” Espiritu told Philippine News. “But, he’s really good and I wish him luck in the coming elections back home, although this doesn’t mean I approve of his candidacy.”
Raygor Masbad of San Antonio, Texas, on the other hand, was all-agog over the thought of Pacman duplicating last Saturday the stellar performance he put up in 2003 at The Alamodome against Marco Antonio Barrera. Manny first earned the respect and adulation of Texans in that fight by stopping Barrera in the 11th round via TKO.
“A lot of FilAms here in San Antonio were disappointed with Manny’s decision to run for the Philippine Congress,” Masbad pointed out. “With his spectacular victory last Saturday, however, I think many of them are now beginning to respect, but not necessarily favor, that decision. Most of them would still prefer a Manny Pacquiao that is 100 percent world-class boxer – and not as a target, let alone a player, in dirty Philippine politics.”
As of press time, Manny has flown back to the Philippines to resume his campaign to unseat the incumbent representative of South Cotabato’s first district, Darlene Antonino-Custodio of the opposition Nationalist People’s Coalition-Achievers with Integrity Movement. The boxing hero is running under President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo’s Kabalikat ng Malayang Pilipino party.
