MANNY PACQUIAO will be in his 71st fight five days from today.
He will be defending his World Boxing Association (WBA) welterweight crown against Adrien Broner on Sunday, January 20 (PHL time).
For Broner, the 29-year-old American from Cincinnati, Ohio, the encounter will not only be his 38th bout but the defining moment of a checkered career marked by ups and downs.
His brushes with the law, ranging from domestic violence to driving/speeding without a license and sexual assault, merely reflects his boxing moniker: ?The Problem.?
But although Broner is 33 fights behind Pacquiao?s total bouts, he is not lacking in credentials in the beak-busting business. He is a former four-time world champion.
That is easily dwarfed, though, by Pacquiao?s record eight division world titles. But, hey, look at this: Only nine of Broner?s 33 victims survived his knockout power.
Besides boasting of 24 knockout wins, Broner?s three losses were merely on points. Meaning, he has never been floored.
But here comes Pacquiao, at 40, bragging to high heavens he will inflict a first knockout defeat on Broner.
If you ask me, it might just happen.
Pacquiao is only too fixated to stop Broner to cement a well-orchestrated plan to face Floyd Mayweather Jr. again.
The much-talked about rematch has been in the works for two years now ever since Mayweather easily run away with a unanimous decision win over Pacquiao in 2015.
The world saw Mayweather?s win obviously coming as Pacquiao couldn?t connect correctly in that ill-fated bout, whose much-ballyhooed hype as ?The Fight of The Century? quickly degenerated into ?The Farce of The Century.?
And then the real shock came: Pacquiao fought Mayweather with an injured shoulder, a handicap concealed tightly before the fight that reportedly fetched a record $600 million.
Pacquiao has since recovered his true form and, even before he turned 40 last December 17, seemed to have proven his readiness to battle Mayweather again as evidenced by his seventh-round knockout win over Lucas Matthysse to capture the Argentine?s WBA crown.
And what more proof does Pacquiao need to ink his rematch with Mayweather than knock Broner out, making it a rare back-to-back stoppage victories for the durable fighting senator with 39 KO wins tucked under his belt?
Bold as it may seem, therefore, I predict a Pacquiao victory by knockout. What round it will be I can only hazard a guess: between the fourth and eighth rounds. If the fight goes the distance, Pacquiao by unanimous decision.
Sit tight, crystal ball.
THAT?S IT For San Miguel Beer?s June Mar Fajardo to win a record five Most Valuable Player awards in the Philippine Basketball Association is more than enough reason to raise glasses. But for him to do it five straight years, what does that tell us? Man may land on Mars soon but, hey, Fajardo?s feat might not be matched?not in the immediate future. That?s easily comparable to Pacquiao?s eight world division titles: The hardest to surpass, let alone equal.
