MANNY Pacquiao crushed his ambitious Thai foe with thundering combinations to score a merciless fourth-round knockout that touched off a wild celebration at The Fort in Taguig City last night.A crowd estimated at 25,000 roared in approval and awe as Fahsan 3K Battery landed hard on his back after taking an ax-like left uppercut to the jaw. It was the Thai’s first knockout defeat in 53 fights.
The stoppage was so complete that referee Ferdinand Estrella did not bother to count as Fahsan lay senseless on the canvas while fireworks lit the overcast skies around the fight venue.
Keeping his vow to fight toe-to-toe, Fahsan sneaked in a few stiff right punches, but Pacquiao was far too superior for the visitor, who stayed on the floor for nearly two minutes before being helped back to his corner.
“Pacquiao was just too fast,” Fahsan told the Inquirer through his manager, who himself appeared stunned at the quick stoppage.
Pacquiao started out tight and failed to pin down his elusive, bobbing foe in the first round.
But there was no doubting the brutal outcome after Pacquiao floored Fahsan with an overhand left midway in the second round before scoring another knockdown at the end of the third.
Pacquiao then chased Fahsan all over the ring in the fourth, downed him with an uppercut, paused for a while, before going all out and scoring the paralyzing blow for the knockout at one minute 26 seconds of the round.
Pacquiao dedicated the victory to the flood victims in Quezon and now looks forward to his rematch against Juan Manuel Marquez on Feb. 26.
Super flyweight sensation Z Gorres scored an impressive 10-round decision over Fahsan’s countryman Chaiyong Distar to confirm his billing as the next Filipino boxing star.
But it was Filipino lightweight champion Ferdinand Montilla who set the tone for the final bout by stopping Rey Almonicar in 47 seconds of the first round to keep his crown.
Contrary to advance reports, President Gloria Macapacal-Arroyo did not grace the star-studded event that drew a host of celebrities and top political figures, including Representative Mikey Arroyo who got roundly booed on the two occasions his presence was announced.
Pacquiao is being packaged for multi-million dollar fights against the world top featherweights, like Erik Morales and Marco Antonio Barrera, next year.
The Fahsan fight was specifically a tune-up match for Pacquiao’s scheduled rematch against Juan Manuel Marquez on Feb. 26.
A Pacquiao fall could’ve caused widespread national despair.
No fighter since the great Flash Elorde has stolen the fancy of his countrymen like Pacquiao, the flamboyant, power-punching former construction worker, now the source of pride and symbol of hope by the poor masses all over the country.
It was the best-attended fight, held on a vast field in the former military camp in Taguig, since Luisito Espinosa successfully defended his world featherweight crown and drew nearly 300,000 fans at the Rizal Park in 1996.
It was only Pacquiao’s second fight this year, after he figured in a controversial draw while trying to wrest the IBF/WBA featherweight crowns of the durable Juan Manuel Marquez in Las Vegas last May.
Fahsan helped sell the fight by claiming he knew of a hidden spot, a soft, vulnerable portion of Pacquiao’s anatomy which the Thai vowed to rip by coming out fighting.
He said he would go toe-to-toe against Pacquiao right at the first bell.
“If he does that, he would walk straight into a wall, Manny is just too superior,” predicted Pacquiao’s Puerto Rican cut man, Lenny de Jesus. The famous cornerman also clarified that he started working for Pacquiao only last year against Emmanuel Lucero, and not in the fight against Lehlo Ledwabah in 2001.
The Thai camp had also claimed Pacquiao, who was able to train thoroughly for less than a month, was not at peak form for last night’s big fight.
Fahsan Nahrongrit Phirang, son of poor farmers from Ubon Rathani in northern Thailand, adopted the ring name Fahsan 3K Battery with a dream of coming home to a tumultuous welcome in Bangkok, where he said Pacquiao, ranked by Thais as the greatest featherweight fighter in the world today, is regarded as a hero.
Fahsan was to earn 1.7 million pesos for agreeing to fight Pacquiao.
As added reward to his 17-million-peso purse, Pacquiao, who turns 26 on Dec. 17, gets a holiday break, although his trainer, Freddie Roach, gave strict orders for him to report back to the Wild Card Boxing Club in Hollywood first week of January to train for his scheduled rematch against Marquez on Feb. 26.
The Thai dreamer was wild as long shots come in a brutal, unforgiving sport like boxing.
But his chief handler, Jimmy Chachtochuang, said it was unkind to rank his fighter a necessary nuisance.
“Just look [at] what happened to Roy Jones,” the Thai manager said, “nobody believed he could ever lose to Antonio Tarver.”
He announced Fahsan did not come to Manila just to lose.
He said his fighter, who had never been knocked out in 52 pro fights, worked very, very hard with the goal of scoring a sensational upset equal to what Pacquiao had done when he stopped Marco Antonio Barrera last year in Texas.
Fahsan repeated his vow to win by knockout on the eve of the big bout.
Pacquiao, saying he has added a vicious right punch to his artillery, said he would just do his best for his countrymen, mainly the flood victims for whom he initially donated 200,000 pesos.
