World Boxing Council (WBC) international super featherweight champion Manny Pacquiao became the first Filipino boxer ever to be named Fighter of the Year by the prestigious The Ring magazine, acknowledged worldwide as The Bible of Boxing.
This puts Pacquiao as only the seventh lighter-weight top fighter that the Blue Bell, Pennsylvania-based magazine has named since its founding in 1922.
Equally significant, world leaders in online sports coverage — ESPN.com, cbsSportsLine.com, SportsNetwork.com, MatchBoxing.com, TigerBoxing.com, among others – likewise voted him 2006 Fighter of the Year hands down.
HBO-Boxing, on the other hand, is more events-oriented. As of this writing, it is still conducting a poll in its website on which boxing event in 2006, out of four choices, was considered best: the Pacquiao-Morales rematch in January or their rubber match in November.
Other international media on the web as well as bloggers have been rooting for Pacquiao as the year’s “best fighter,” “most exciting fighter,” “undisputed superstar of boxing” – a variety of nicknames and titles that all allude to Pacman’s world-class celebrity status.
In the Philippines, Pacquiao has long been acknowledged the country’s “Pambansang Kamao,” (National Fist), in addition to being the national sports hero. Sportswriters, columnists, boxing aficionados and sports commissioners are still debating whether he is deserving of the title Athlete of the Decade. Pacquiao has lost only one of his 33 fights since 1999.
The coveted Fighter of the Year title was much deserved, if not expected, even as the world boxing community may have vacillated between Pacquiao and world welterweight champion Floyd Mayweather, Jr., who notched a pair of impressive victories in 2006.
In the final analysis, Pacquiao’s three wins during the year were not only equally impressive as Mayweather’s, but deemed more dramatic. His latest triumph on November 18 in Las Vegas, a KO victory in a final showdown with Mexican arch-rival Erik Morales, put an end to modern boxing’s most celebrated trilogy – and, possibly, to Morales’s illustrious career itself.
Like it or not, Pacquiao’s distinction as 2006 Fighter of the Year came at the expense of Morales, nicknamed El Terrible, because of his high knockout percentage early in his career. Ironically though, it was the Filipino boxing hero who gave Morales his first taste of the canvass ever.
That was in January 2006 at Las Vegas’s Thomas & Mack Center when Pacquiao, avenging his March 2005 defeat to Morales by unanimous decision, felled him twice on the 10th round to win by TKO. (It was only this fight that Pacquiao lost since 1999.)
As talks were clearing the way for a third and final match between the two pugilists toward yearend, Pacquiao hopped into a title fight in July against another Mexican, Oscar Larios. The promise of an early and easy knockout from the Larios camp proved empty as Pacquiao sent the two-time super bantamweight champion to the floor twice on the 12th round to win the WBC international super featherweight belt.
Thus on November 18, top boxing promoter Top Rank set the stage for “The Grand Finale” of the Manny Pacquiao-Erik Morales rivalry. It was a short fight, taking less time than what one would need to microwave dinner.
Before a record crowd of nearly 20,000 that packed the Thomas & Mack Center while the Filipino nation stood still halfway across the globe, Pacquiao demolished Morales at 2 minutes and 57 seconds of the third round.
In less than 10 minutes of the scheduled 12-round fight, Pacquiao floored Morales thrice: the first, halfway through the second round, and the last two on the third. An upset would have been less surprising, the Filipino southpaw being a 2 ?-1 favorite to retain the title.
Indeed, 2006 is Pacman’s year, not only in the boxing world, but also in the Philippine entertainment and advertising industries. In June, Pacquiao: The Movie was released, in which Jericho Rosales played the title role.
Weeks before his victorious rematch with Morales, Manny produced the song, “Para sa ‘Yo ang Laban na ‘To,” (This Fight is for You). The hit single was a direct reference to the Filipino people, to whom he has dedicated all his fights.
Philippine advertisers and their agencies have been riding well and high on his superstardom. A large number of major consumer brands have been advertising in both media and non-traditional channels with Manny’s endorsement.
Yet if one asks law enforcement agencies in Metro Manila, Pacquiao could very well qualify as “Crime Fighter of the Year.” On record, police agencies in the metropolis have noted a near-zero crime rate during each of Manny’s fights in 2006, as the entire nation glued itself to television monitors.
President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, Manny’s biggest fan, always took the opportunity to toast him in public.
During her sixth State of the Nation address in July, Ms. Arroyo cited him as one of the nation’s modern-day heroes, saluting him, “Mabuhay ka, Manny!”
