There is a vast slice of the American public — mainstream sports fans, reality-TV watchers who might have caught a few episodes of The Contender or moviegoers who’ve seen a Rocky or two, former Mike Tyson followers, and even (or maybe especially) editors of national sports magazines — whose knee-jerk reaction to boxing is, “It’s a circus.” They dismiss the sport as an irrelevant mix of over-hyped, under-talented heavyweights (who, after all, aren’t “real” athletes like those in the NFL or the NBA) and “a bunch of little guys no one’s ever heard of,” all promoted by charlatans. As my mother would say, you just can’t talk to people like that.
Maybe, though, you could show them a tape of Saturday night’s superfeatherweight bout between Erik Morales and Manny Pacquiao, and maybe then they would start to understand that there’s more to this business than Sylvester Stallone and Don King. The bout was everything that makes boxing compelling: two talented, extremely well-schooled, well-prepared fighters coming together with their reputations and professional futures at stake, each with reason to believe he could beat the other, but each also with reason to know he would be tested in the extreme. For the nearly 19,000 on hand at the Thomas & Mack Center in Las Vegas and for however many more around the country put out $44.95 for the HBO pay-per-view, Morales and Pacquiao delivered the kind of performance, the kind of struggle, that raises boxing above the easily-assimilated thrills of most “sport.”
The bout was a rematch of their dramatic and bloody 12-round fight of last March. Morales won that one on a close, but clear unanimous decision. In the time between, the 27-year-old Pacquiao, who is an action-film star and all-around national hero in his native Philippines, had won his one bout, stopping Hector Velazquez in six rounds in Los Angeles last September to run his record to 40-3-2, with 32 knockouts. Morales, however, fighting on that same September card in L.A. and making his first move up to 135 pounds, had lost his tune-up, getting clearly outboxed by the slick Zahir Raheem. It was only the third loss for the 29-year-old Morales in 51 bouts — and the only one not to his Mexican countryman Marco Antonio Barrera (who’d taken two of three from Morales in their electrifying triology). In the end, though, the loss didn’t derail the rematch, and as the boisterous, flag-waving groups of Filipino and Mexican fans made clear on Saturday night, that was as it should be.
As with any rematch, the question was whether the loser of the first bout could do enough different to change the outcome this time around. The charismatic Pac Man, a relentlessly energetic southpaw with an explosive punch, had rocked Morales several times in their first meeting, but Morales, taller by an inch and a half at 5-feet-8, supremely durable (he’d never been off his feet as a pro) and a resourceful, disciplined fighter, had weathered the shots and kept the less technically sound Pacquiao off balance and backing up with a long left jab and jarring right hands. A natural warrior, Morales had simply outgunned the naturally smaller Pacquiao, who was bothered from the fifth round on by a bad cut beside his right eye. Pacquiao had also complained about having to wear Winning brand gloves, rather than Reyes brand, which because they are stuffed with horsehair, rather than foam, are considered better “puncher’s gloves.”
Outfitted with Reyes this time around, Pacquiao exuded confidence. He is a remarkably cheerful-looking fighter, with a small happy smile under his wispy mustache, and he provided a dramatic contrast to the chiseled severity of Morales. Still, there was no doubt that Pacquiao was all business. During prefight instructions in his dressing room, he asked referee Kenny Bayless, in soft, halting English, for clarification of one point, to be sure that a fighter could not be saved by the bell in the final round. There was no doubt that Pacquiao was making sure not of his own safety, but that there was every reason for him to keep trying to take out Morales right up to the final second.
In the opening round, however, Pacquiao was a little more measured in his attack than he had been in the first fight. He used a flicking right jab before shooting over his bread-and-butter punch, the straight left. Pacquiao is such a committed puncher that his attack in the past had often carried him through too far and left him off balance. He had paid for that pattern the first time against Morales, and this time he seemed determined to avoid it. Morales, meanwhile, looked big, determined and prepared. He used a good long left jab and toward the end of the round caught Pacquiao with a solid right hand. Though Pacquiao showed his superior hand speed with a flurry just before the bell, the round went to Morales.
The fight settled in over the next four rounds. Pacquiao began to get through with the straight left in the second and to score to Morales’ body, even as Morales continued to fire back with lefts and rights. With 45 seconds to go, Pacquiao landed a left that rocked Morales back, forcing him to clutch at the ropes to remain upright. It was certainly enough to give the round to Pacquiao, but through the third, fourth and fifth, Morales appeared to be the more complete fighter, landing his jab and often backing up Pacquiao and neutralizing the Filipino’s faster hands.
Then in the sixth, the fight moved to another level. Showing new discipline in his attack and using more right hands than in the past, Pacquiao battered Morales with several solid shots and sent him wobbling back to his corner. There was a cut over Morales’ right eye and a haunted look on his face.
But Morales showed once again that he is at his best when he’s pressed. He actually opened the seventh with an attack and landed some good punches, but it soon became clear that Pacquiao, despite taking punishment throughout, was now the stronger of the two. Morales never relented, but Pacquiao was battering him to the body and to the head. Morales’s hawk-like nose seemed shifted to the side and toward the end of the eighth he showed a kind of cracked grin as he wobbled again along the ropes, but he finished the round with a desperate flurry.
“Momentum” gets talked about a lot in sports, but it is never as real or as visceral as it is in a boxing match when one fighter begins to succumb to the prolonged attack of another, even as he refuses to relent. Morales survived the ninth, but in the 10th Pacquiao finally overwhelmed him, setting up the finish with a serious body attack and then sending him down — awkwardly, begrudgingly, exhaustedly — with a clubbing left. Morales was up at the count of eight, with 41 seconds remaining, and Pacquiao drove him to the ropes and back down with a barrage of punches. Bayless stopped the bout at 2:33 of the 10th.
One can only wonder to what stratospheric level Pacquiao’s popularity has now soared in the Philippines. But even here, in the U.S., there’s reason to hope for a little Pac-mania. He has proved himself to be that rare fighter who can continue to learn and hone his skills, even on the grandest stage. Though the contract called for a rematch, neither fighter seemed ready to agree to that just yet. Morales, who admitted he had come into the ring tired and drained from the struggle to make 130 pounds, said he wanted to take a “vacation.” Pacquiao, when asked at the post-fight press conference what would be next for him, answered happily, “Rest!”
No one who saw their fight would begrudge either man a bit of peace and quiet. Nor, I maintain, would anyone who saw it pass up a chance to see either in action again.
