FOR FILIPINOS everywhere, everything was right with the world Saturday evening in Las Vegas (Sunday noontime in Manila). Manny Pacquiao made it right.
A swift, overpowering and precise destruction of Erik Morales was wrought by a visibly stronger, speedier and more resilient Pacquiao.
Never before had the GenSan bomber displayed such blinding hand speed and power that bewildered the Mexican boxing legend. Morales tried gamely to match Manny?s fusillade, but he did not count on the new and vastly improved Manny Pacquiao.
From the start, Morales already felt the difference in Pacquiao?s movements, but simply could not believe it. So he was sucked into playing the game Manny wanted to play; that of slugging it out toe to toe.
By the second round, the former world champion in three different divisions started to have some doubts and was instantly startled into reality with a big left hook to the ear that sent him to the canvas. He got up and tried to get back at Pacquiao to no avail.
By the third round and the third knockdown of the fight, Morales was a believer. “I was looking at my corner. They were urging me on to get up, but I knew it was futile. No point. I was a beaten man tonight.” Morales said.
And so, the Grand Finale curtains came down amidst the lusty cheers of Filipinos worldwide and a stunned look on the Mexican?s paisanos.
The Tijuana native, in a postfight interview, insisted he was in perfect physical shape. He had poohpoohed the Filipino?s punching power before the fight, and figured he could get the better of the exchanges. He had faced the guy twice before and he thought he knew how to handle him. He would allow Manny to come in, and then set him up with his superb counter-punching abilities.
But the former construction boy, tricycle driver and baker?s attendant, was a step ahead, literally and figuratively. Freddie Roach, the celebrated trainer who has masterfully directed Manny?s career for the past five years, had developed an antidote for Morales? counterpunch.
A week before the fight, Roach revealed “Manny?s gonna go in there, deliver the punches and get out, either by back-pedaling or moving laterally. This is going to be one of the major improvements we are going to bring into this third fight.”
He wasn?t just blowing off.
And the speed of the Pacquiao combinations was unbelievable.
In video footages of his training and even as he warmed up before the fight, Manny was seen delivering those lightning quick combinations to the mitts of Roach and his long-time trainer and buddy, Buboy Fernandez, complete with rhythmic grunts.
Many thought that was just for show. It wasn?t supposed to happen in real life in the ring.
Well, Pacquiao did an “instant replay” of their mitts routine. This time, however, it was mostly Erik?s face and body that got in the way of his gloves.
“Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!” went Pacquiao in training. And although it could not be heard amidst the din at the venue and everywhere else where people watched and howled with every punch, you could imagine Manny?s growls as he pummeled the bewildered “El Terrible.”
It wasn?t that Morales did not connect. He threw some crisp punches that hit the mark and even snapped the Filipino?s head back, but Pacquiao?s superb conditioning allowed him to brush these off, suck it up and continue with the demolition job.
Not too many people expected that fight to end the way it did. Even Roach was surprised at the sudden ending.
The general prognosis was, that Morales would control the early rounds and then Pacquiao?s conditioning would kick in and he would dominate the middle through the later rounds. But Manny came out with a sense of urgency, not allowing the smallest window of opportunity to pass him by.
He varied his attack from the head to the body, engaged Morales in fierce exchanges and delivered the goods just as Roach predicted.
And so, boxing aficionados have come out with their individual analyses of the fight ? Pacquiao?s speed and power, the seeming twilight of Morales? boxing career, coupled with his weight problems. Also the transformation of Manny Pacquiao from a reckless, one-dimensional fighter to the lethal and systematic machine that grinds out punishment wrapped in leather.
But there was one guy coming out of a movie theater in Ortigas, screaming gleefully into his cell phone: ??Nilamog ni Manny si Morales sa third round. Mukhang napikon doon sa sinabi ni Morales na pangit ang boses niya” (Manny beat Morales to a pulp in the third round. I think he got mad at Morales? remark that he had an ugly voice).
That could also be it.
