LOS ANGELES?When it was all over on Saturday night in Las Vegas, Manny Pacquiao froze momentarily at ring center and stared at the crowd, possibly thinking that he had failed to do what most of his countrymen wanted him to.
By dealing Marco Antonio Barrera a one-sided beating, Pacquiao proved to everyone that his 11th round knockout victory over the Mexican marvel was not a fluke and that he indeed has Barrera’s number.
“This is a new facet of my game,” said Pacquiao in the vernacular. “While I am known for knockout wins, I showed everyone that I can box, too.”
Pacquiao got back here from Sin City late Sunday evening and is booked to fly out of LAX late Wednesday. He is expected in Manila at around 5 a.m. of Friday where throngs of supporters will be present to meet him.
Although he was unable to stop Barrera dead in his tracks, Pacquiao was happy that he still managed to stave off the 33-year-old’s surprisingly spirited challenge.
Oddsmakers here and even abroad had given Barrera a slim chance of scoring an upset, much less dragging Pacquiao into the 12th and final round.
But Barrera, who obviously prepared well and hard for the rematch, came up with smart head movements to escape being pounded by Pacquiao’s hammering fists.
“We have become so used to Pacquiao being so explosive and lethal that we no longer appreciate it much when he wins on points,” said a middle-aged fight aficionado who was among the 10,112 fans who watched the fight.
“It was still an impressive win by Pacquiao but because we all wanted to see a knockout, most of us thought that was not sensational,” he added.
In his private moments, Pacquiao had of course thought that the rematch would be trouble-free considering the embarrassment that he inflicted Barrera almost four years ago in San Antonio, Texas.
But Barrera put on a tougher stance to deny Pacquiao a coveted knockout win and rode into the sunset not only with his faculties intact but his reputation untarnished as well.
