The long and bitter feud between Golden Boy Promotions and Top Rank has finally been mediated to a truce. Oscar De La Hoya and Bob Arum are friends once more, if only for the moment. Reconciliation benefits not only the corporate coffers, but also hardcore and casual boxing fans alike. The two are now able to resume cordial business relations and bring some of the most intriguing and potentially exciting fistic contests, which only mere months ago seemed impossible, to fruition.
Some of these fights (Shane Mosley versus Miguel Cotto) have already been scheduled and Saturday, October 6, 2007, on HBO Pay-Per-View, the two promotional juggernauts will launch into this brave new world by cashing in on two of their most lucrative, albeit diminutive, cash cows by staging the rematch between Manny Pacquiao and Marco Antonio Barrera.
It makes sense. Well alright, maybe at this point the rematch doesn’t make sense. After all, Barrera is coming off of a unanimous decision loss to Juan Manuel Marquez, the same Marquez who fought Pacquiao to a draw in their first and only meeting to date. That is the rematch that would have made sense, but this one makes more cents. After all, boxing is a business and money will always be the dominant integer in the equation, no matter how many fighters stand behind the podium during press conferences proclaiming, “This one is for pride!” For whatever reason, the fight that matters most at super featherweight isn’t going to happen right now. As a consolation, fans will get to see two of the biggest names in boxing, two legends, two future residents of Canastota, coming to Las Vegas to do battle, to go to war with each other. So why isn’t the boxing world more excited? Because many insiders see this as more of a trick than a treat.
Let’s not forget, it will be the season for Halloween and one has to wonder whether it will be a vintage “Baby Faced Assassin” that shows up at Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas to challenge the “Pacman’, or a battle worn veteran disguised as the former champion. Fans have witnessed that scenario play out once already this year when the battered, hollow shell of Erik Morales crumpled to the canvas and refused to rise and accept more punishment from the Filipino Wrecking Machine. It was a painfully tedious affair to witness then, and I personally have no desire to see it repeated. Can Barrera do it differently than his most hated foe? Has his training camp seen a resurgence in his speed, power, and tenacity returning him to the form that made him so feared during his prime? Would it even matter? The majority of boxing pundits seem to feel that the “Pacific Sensation” is so great that he will simply annihilate any version of Barrera that dares step into the ring with him, in even more emphatic fashion than he did the first time. Given that way that first bout turned out, a rematch does seem unnecessary, bordering on ridiculous.
Barrera was so thoroughly dominated by the Filipino Firehouse in November of 2003 that the proud Mexican warrior had to humbly push his hubris aside and uncharacteristically accept defeat. Barrera, fresh off a loss to Juan Manuel Marquez, is looking for a last big win to ride out into the sunset with. And why shouldn’t he? After this rematch, Barrera will have a total of seventy professional fights, many of which were classic ring wars. This number is not all that impressive when compared to the records of old school fighters, though it is all but unheard of today. The former Super Bantamweight, Featherweight, and Super Featherweight Champion deserves to go out on top if he can. Yet, in wishing his final victory to be over Manny Pacquiao, is his reach exceeding his grasp? Is it simply a matter of ‘too little too late’ for the Mexican master?
Before proceeding, let me first offer this disclaimer: I do not know what school one must attend in order to receive certification as a boxing “expert.” I never attended that institute of higher learning. I am a fan, plain and simple. I watch the fights, as many as I can, as often as I can. I study them. I drink them in. I digest them. But I am not an expert and will never claim to be, not even if I grow old to the point of senility and in watching rebroadcasts of HBO classic fights it occurs to me that Larry Merchant is speaking too quickly to comprehend what he is saying. However, I do have an opinion, and the good people here at RSR have just given me a format in which to express it, so here it goes.
No, this is not the Super Featherweight bout that the fans were clamoring for. That would have been Pacquiao-Marquez II, the man who recently defeated Barrera and had a draw with the “Pacman.” Again, this is the same Juan Manuel Marquez that is scheduled to face Rocky Juarez on September 15, yes that is the Rocky Juarez who lost to Barrera, who lost to Marquez but is scheduled to fight Pacquiao who fought to a draw with Marquez. I give up. I can’t make any sense of the situation so I’ll just accept it as it is, without question, like a good little pay-per-view buying drone. So now we are left with Pacquiao-Barrera II for the WBC Super Featherweight title. A rematch that wasn’t warranted four years ago when Barrera was still in his prime.
Now, the “Baby Faced Assassin” is not so baby faced anymore. Time has taken it’s toll. The battles have extracted their price. He’s older, slower, and at times seems to have lost the fury that defined the early part of his career. Conversely, since his win over Barrera, Pacquiao has torn through eight opponents and moved up a weight class, stumbling only against the aforementioned Marquez and losing the first of three fights with Erik Morales in what would prove to be Morales’ final victory in a hall of fame career. In his last outing, against Jorge Solis 32-1-2, 24 KO’s, the ‘Pacman’ experienced a so called “off-night”, settling for an eighth round knockout of the previously unbeaten fighter. Such is the standard now set for Manny Pacquiao. Unfortunately for the rest of the division, even in a bad performance Pacquiao remains too much for anyone but the most elite top tier opponent. The question is whether Barrera even remains a top tier opponent.
People claim that he is too old, too ring-worn to be able to handle what Pacquiao is capable of dishing out. They say that he is no longer relevant. They may be right but go and ask Prince Naseem Hamed (if you can find him) what happens when you dismiss Barrera. Hamed fought only once after suffering a vicious beating at the hands of Barrera and then promptly retired, apparently not feeling the need to even attempt to avenge his only career loss.
Ask Erik Morales for that matter, or even Rocky Juarez who, in his second fight with Barrera clearly anticipated another brawl with an older, slower opponent and thereby overlooked Barrera’s underrated boxing ability, finding himself at the end of a jab he couldn’t get past all night. To be fair, Manny Pacquiao is a typhoon who blows through world class fighters the way Hurricane Katrina blew through levees. There is a reason why he is included in the top three on all Pound-for-Pound lists put together by persons not smoking crack rock. At times Manny, so quick, so powerful, so relentless, seems unbeatable. This is purely illusion. He is not unbeatable. Ironically, Barrera’s saving grace can be found in the blue print laid down by two of his most bitter rivals.
Marquez, and later Morales, demonstrated that if a fighter is able to weather the early storm and survive the onslaught, if he is willing to absorb heavy punishment, and if he is prepared to engage in a strategic war, Pacquiao can be discouraged, even defeated. Perhaps more appropriately stated, he can be out boxed. Superior technical ability may be the one ace Barrera has up his sleeve. Then again, maybe not. The question was posed earlier as to whether it will be a vintage Barrera that shows up at Mandalay Bay or just an empty, costumed copy. The same question can, and should, be asked in regards to Pacquiao.
The most famous man in the Philippines has few secrets. In terms of media coverage in his homeland, Manny Pacquiao is the Filipino equivalent of Britney Spears, Lindsay Lohan, and Paris Hilton combined, only not as fat, drunk, and stupid. Every minute aspect is covered ad-nauseum by the national tabloids, preoccupying the fighter with their rumor mills and innuendo, distracting him from what should be his primary focus; defeating Marco Antonio Barrera in October.
The distractions at home are varied, and Pacquiao is susceptible to them all, which is why ever since the first Morales fight, Manny and Trainer Freddie Roach have trained in private at Roach’s Wild Card gym in Los Angeles. Yet, after repeatedly postponing his departure from the Philippines in order to start his training camp, Pacquiao finally arrived in the U.S. on August 8, just to return to his homeland August 11, only three days later. Paranoia is the excuse given for the sudden flight, as the “Pacman” claims that the Wild Card Gym may have been infiltrated by Barrera spies. Whatever, this is boxing not Mission Impossible. The true reason for his early return home is unclear, what is clear is that Manny is not solely concentrating on his opponent. “Manny loves to play to the crowd. He’s not focusing on the fight, he’s focusing on the fans,” Roach is reported to have said in a recent interview. That’s not all. Rumors have been circulating for sometime that accuse Manny of having an affair with sultry Filipino movie star Ara Mina, which both deny. The rumors may, in fact, be nothing more than rumors, but the boxing superstar has confessed that their circulation has hurt his family, ergo another distraction to deal with.. Then there was the supposed rift between Manny and long time trainer and surrogate father Freddie Roach stemming from the Roach’s absence during Pacquiao’s most recent fight against Jorge Solis.
Roach missed the bout in order to train Oscar De La Hoya for his Superfight against Floyd Mayweather, JR. For his part, Roach has denounced these rumors as baseless as well, yet once again, truthfulness in non-consequential. It remains yet another pink elephant in the gym. Everybody is thinking about it even if they aren’t talking about it. Now there are reports of a flue bug forcing the champion to take a few days off in order to recover. Combine this with the stories of his not upholding a promise to cheer on the Philippine team at Golden Boy’s recently staged World Cup, his holding up a Philippines Airlines flight because he was uncertain if he wanted to board, and the question becomes not “Is he focused,” but “How can he be focused?”
All these distractions, though bad for Pacquiao, may prove beneficial to anyone willing to shell out the fifty bucks to watch the fight, i.e. me. Because nothing is going to change the fact that Manny Pacquiao is full of heart, intensity, and devastating power. Any vulnerabilities that outside influences cause him to bring into the rill will potentially make the fight more exciting. Whatever he lacks in sharpness and conditioning, will only cause him to fight harder, while opening the window for Barrera to steal a victory in a match that most believe he has no business winning. It is a safe bet that Barrera will be focused and you can guaranteed that he his not taking Pacquiao lightly. One of the greatest Mexican fighters of all time, he goes into this, possibly his last battle, like a good warrior, intending to return either with his shield or on it. There can be no retreat. Pacquiao-Barrera II, “Too Little-Too Late?” Nah. “Better Late than Never.”
