Macau ? He remembered and felt the scathing metaphor.
?He was like a typhoon that crossed the Pacific,? said Larry Merchant, the grand old man of HBO Boxing, when asked his impression upon seeing Manny Pacquiao for the first time.
That was in 2001 in Las Vegas when the Filipino icon burst into the consciousness of Vegas fight people, as he manhandled and dethroned South African Lehlo Ledwaba.
That storm has since gathered speed and strength and developed into a super typhoon that devastated the ranks of the best and other ring heroes the last 12 years.
It has since weakened the past two years, so fight pundits were quick to say, and he?s now trying to whip up another storm with his Sunday brawl with Brandon Rios and the irony of it, needing a decisive win to provide some relief to a nation ravaged by a super typhoon three weeks ago.
?I love him the first time I saw him, but on hindsight I could not have used that metaphor, ? said the 82-year-old Merchant. Sportshub ( Article MRec ), pagematch: 1, sectionmatch: 1
He had long charted the course of this super storm from General Santos, roaring to the pinnacle of his career only to be stopped on his path by a Mexican tornado with a thunderbolt of a right last December.
Now there are questions whether there are some tailwind left in him and whether Rios? dreaded punch has the kind of velocity that would hasten Pacquiao?s ultimate exit.
?Is Rios good enough to execute a win, is he good enough to take advantage of the decline in Manny?s form?? said Merchant.
His shock defeat at the hands of Juan Manuel Marquez showed Pacquiao was vulnerable and could be hit and hurt but Merchant said Rios is slow on his feet and ?will fight it smart, and will put in relentless pressure but not reckless pressure.? Larry Merchant
Merchant felt pitting Rios in that Sunday showdown at the Cotai Arena is the right fight for Pacquiao in his bid to come out of the trauma of that horrendous knockout by Marquez that saw the Filipino champ hitting the canvass face first.
But would he ever flash the old Pacquiao again?
?It?s harder for older fighters to really recover from a knockout. The young opponents would somehow find weakness, expose cracks and work on them, they know you are on the decline,? he said.
Still Merchant remains a Pacquiao man on the good and bad years. ?He?s the best of his time.?
