You won’t see it around here, but Manny Pacquiao has already gained a distinction few boxers ever reach — he’s made the cover of Time magazine, albeit the Asian edition. While he was pushed off the cover of the U.S. edition by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, a five-page feature on boxing’s top pound-for-pound fighter and his political aspirations remains inside.
Pacquiao, who earlier this year was included in Time’s list of the 100 most influential people, was overwhelmed.
“A fighter’s dream is to win a world title and gain financial stability,” said Pacquiao, who meets Miguel Cotto on Saturday night in the biggest fight of the year at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas. “But what is happening to me now is the most humbling experience of my life. It is a great honor for me to be the face of my people and to let everyone know we are a small but mighty country.
“I have great pride for all of the Filipinos living throughout the world and it is these people that I fight for each and every time I step into the ring.”
In a world where egos run amok, you have to like the humility of this unassuming — “I just do my job” — little guy from the Philippines, who left his hometown of General Santos City for Manila at the age of 14 to help his mother feed her six children. (His father abandoned the family.)
That was 16 years ago. He has since won six world titles is six different divisions, and is favored to win a seventh on Saturday night. He won the first two while fighting in southeast Asia, but got his big break in 2001, when he stepped in as an 11th-hour replacement and knocked out IBF super bantamweight champion Lehlo Ledwaba in Las Vegas.
That led to an introduction to esteemed trainer Freddie Roach, a Dedham native who runs a gym in Los Angeles. Roach transformed Pacquiao from a wild swinging, one-punch southpaw into a complete, disciplined boxer.
The rest, as they say, is history.
As much as I like Cotto, another fighter who does his talking in the ring, I don’t think he can cope with Pacquiao’s hand speed. I suspect Cotto is planning to slow Pacquiao down with his punishing body work, but he has never faced anyone as fast as the Pacman.
To go to Pacquiao’s body, he has to get inside, and he’s going to think he walked into an airplane propeller when he tries to get close to Pacquiao. Ask Ricky Hatton, who tried a similar strategy.
Cotto is bigger and stronger, but Pacquiao hits harder and has a better chin. The Filipino has apparently not lost any of his explosive power climbing up the weight ladder. If anything, he’s hitting harder now.
Whether it comes early or late, Cotto will fall.
DAWSON DOMINATES
No damage was done, but there was another strange case of scoring in the Chad Dawson-Glen Johnson title fight on Saturday night on HBO.
How two judges could make it a close fight with 115-113 scorecards mystifies me. I had Dawson pitching a virtual shutout. There were only two rounds, the fifth and the 12th, that were remotely close enough to give Johnson the benefit of the doubt.
The third judge had it 117-111 for Dawson, while HBO scorekeeper Harold Lederman had Dawson ahead 118-110, giving Johnson two rounds.
In any case, it was a masterful performance by the undefeated Dawson (28-0, 17 KOs), whom local fans knew was special back when he was fighting preliminary bouts for Rhode Island promoter Jimmy Burchfield.
The win gave Dawson, who has already discarded two world title belts in favor of more financially lucrative bouts, the WBC interim light heavyweight title, thus setting up a title fight with the winner of Jean Pascal-Adrian Diaconu WBC championship fight on Dec. 11 in Montreal.
In the co-feature, Alfredo Angulo (16-1, 13 KOs) gave previously unbeaten Harry Joe Yorgey (22-1-1) a brutal beating in a junior middleweight bout that the referee allowed to go too long. Yorgey was knocked out cold at 1:03 of the third round. This is how fighters suffer serious, sometimes fatal, injuries.
McCREEDY HEADS CARD
Eastern Boxing Association super middleweight champion Irish Joey McCreedy (11-3-1) of Lowell will headline Jimmy Burchfield’s “Autumn Classic” card on Nov. 20, when he takes on Otis Griffin (20-6-2) at the Twin River Event Center in Lincoln, R.I.
Also appearing on the card will be 2008 U.S. Olympic alternate Danny O’Connor (9-0), four-time world women’s champion Jaime “The Hurricane” Clampitt (19-4-1), former University of Rhode Island football player Vladine Biosse (4-0, 3 KOs) and light heavyweight Joe “The Irish Bomber” Smith Jr. (1-0).
For ticket information, call (401) 724-2253.
HAYE TRIPS GIANT
In case you missed it, David Haye (23-1, 21 KOs) not surprisingly won a majority decision over Russian giant Nikolai Valuev to capture the WBA heavyweight title in Nuremberg, Germany on Saturday night. From reports I read, it didn’t sound like a terribly exciting fight, with Haye using his speed of hand and foot to fluster the ponderous Valuev, who had a 98-pound weight advantage.
“His speed was too much for me,” said Valuev. “I don’t think it was a one-sided loss for me, but it clearly wasn’t the best day in my life.”
RING SHORTS
Peter Manfredo Jr. of Providence (33-6-0) made short work of journeyman Ronald Weaver (29-19-2) with a first-round TKO in Cockeysville, Md. Weaver quit on his stool between rounds after being decked late in round one. … WBC junior middleweight champion Sergion Martinez (44-1-2) takes on WBO interim junior middleweight champion Paul Williams on Dec. 5 in Atlantic City in a non-title bout under the middleweight limit. … Juan Diaz and Paulie Malignaggi will do it again on Dec. 12 at the UCI Pavilion in Chicago. Diaz won a highly controversial decision in their first meeting last August.
Bob Hanna covers boxing for The Standard-Times. Contact him at [email protected]
