It’s so hard to begin an article on Manny Pacquiao without quoting what’s already been said a million times in newspapers, on radio, TV and the Internet. His fight with Erik Morales is four days away as you read this, and for sure I will be one among the 80 million-plus Filipinos that will be glued to the telly on Sunday morning.
Like the rest of us, I will be hoping and praying that our champion will prevail in what is essentially a battle of pride—not just between two of the best boxers in the world, but between two countries that have much in common.
To give this piece on “PacMan” some originality, let me take you six years back to December 18, 1999. That’s the date of the only Pacquiao fight I have ever covered—his bout against Reynante Jamili for the second-tier World Boxing Council International super?bantamweight title. It was Manny’s first fight at the 122-pound level, and was actually his “comeback” fight after getting knocked out in the third round by Medgoen Singsurat in their clash three months earlier in Thailand. He lost his WBC flyweight crown in that match.
I had dreaded to go to the fight, not because I didn’t want to see Pacquiao and Jamili go at it, but because of the distance of the venue, the Elorde Sports Center in Para?aque City, from my old place of work. I had imagined that the trip from the Port Area in Manila to the place of the bout would take longer than the actual bout itself.
I was right.
When the bell for the second round of the scheduled 12-rounder rang, I was standing in the rafters high above the ring, the crowd cheering lustily around me. Then I saw Manny approach Jamili at the center of the ring, cock his left fist back and zip it back to the cheek of his foe with such force that I thought Pacquiao might as well have carried a pump-action shotgun and shot it point-blank at his opponent’s face.
I’ve seen that punch of Manny many times more, against other opponents over television over the years, but nothing compares to the sheer thrill that goes through your body when you see him do it in person—and it mixes with the roar of an appreciative crowd that knows the end has come for Pacquiao’s foe. I think it’s the allure of a knockout punch, from any fighter, that keeps boxing fans coming back for more, and Manny’s KO of Jamili made the less-than-six-minute fight worth watching.
It’s worthwhile to note that since that fight, Pacquiao has not lost in 15 bouts over 5 years, although two of them were draws. The first draw was against Agapito Sanchez on November 11, 2001, when a doctor had to stop the fight after six rounds because of an ugly cut on Pacquiao’s right eye. The second was the one every Filipino still remembers bitterly—against Juan Manuel Marquez for the Mexican’s World Boxing Association and International Boxing Federation super bantamweight crowns on May 8.
Still, you really have to throw all records out when you consider that Pacquiao is going up against a Mexican legend in Morales, who is favored to win by not a few because of his ring experience, his ease at fighting at 130 pounds (which Manny will have to move up to for the first time in his career) and his fabled granite chin.
But when you read the quotes—more than 40 of them—from several noted boxers, boxing analysts and other fight fans posted on the website mannypacquiao.ph favoring Pacquiao on Saturday night at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, you will believe, with all your heart, that Manny has a great chance to make us feel great again.
Eighty million Filipinos and I are counting on it.
