Just days ago, I saw a replay of the Manny-Pacquiao-Juan Manuel Marquez world title fight and I began to rethink my assessment of Pacquiao as possibly the greatest Filipino fist-fighter ever. He was (at least in my mind) when he destroyed Marco Antonio Barrera in Texas last year. According to the Ring magazine, pound for pound Barrera was incomparable and inimitable. And he probably was until our Pacquiao laid gloves on him and took him apart.
Now to that controversial fight with Marquez, who holds the WB and IBF featherweight titles.
Thrice, Manny decked Marquez in the first round. Under the old rules, that was a technical knockout, and Manny should have won. And even if the old rules were still in place, Manny had no business losing that fight. Okay, there was that judge that held a 10-7 card for the first round, when that should have been 10-6. The Filipino should have won by one point.
Be that as it may, the replay showed things and elements I did not see very clearly in the first fight. In a rematch, Marquez will take care from the first round on to avoid Pacquiao?s murderous left. Pacquiao cannot kill with his right, only with his left. He does not have a homicidal right hook in his arsenal, as southpaw Gabriel (Flash) Elorde had.
Marquez will henceforth take care to avoid any bruising exchange with Pacquiao. He is not a charging Brahma bull but a boxer, a counter-fighter with steaming fast hands, three for Pacquiao?s one in close exchange. Hardly anybody in the world beats Marquez in counter-punching. He throws out short knifes in a jiffy, then moves out. During those ten rounds after the first, Marquez was so elusive Pacquiao never landed his left on target.
Another thing. Pacquiao threw a lot of punches all right, but hardly or ever in savage, relentless combinations the way Flash Elorde did, the way Sugar Ray Robinson did, the way Muhammad Ali did. There was no such thing as patay kung patay, matira ang matibay. Maybe his right hand hurt, as he said afterward, his left foot turned leaden because of a blister.
But in extreme crisis situations, like a house on fire or a sinking ship, or an aerial bombardment, hurting right hands and left foot blisters don?t matter much.
You fight because your very life depends on it. You fight because two world featherweight titles are at stake. You fight because a nameless fury possesses you, and you survive or you die. You fight because you are fighting for 84 million Filipinos who are hanging on for dear life. And the national flag is up there, stirring wildly in the wind
I have all the admiration for Manny Paquiao.
But that doesn?t mean I can no longer dwell on his weak points. And he still has some. He hardly ever slams to the body, seeks the shortest route out, the bone-crushing left to the face, the knockout. When he meets Marquez the next time, he should be more versatile, more long-distanced, slamming to the body when he cannot get to the head fast. His priority should be to develop a right hook, the way Flash Elorde did late in his career. And so did Emil (Bill) Tinde. Manny?s rights are probing rights, tentative rights, rights seeking an opening.
With a right hook, mean, wicked, sprung suddenly like a steel trap, Manny Pacquiao develops a second deadly weapon.
