IN a rematch, Manny Pacquiao is 100 percent. Meaning, he hasn?t lost.
After knocking out Marco Antonio Barrera in 2003 in the biggest upset of the year, Pacquiao would next drop Juan Manuel Marquez three times in the first round the following year?only to get robbed of victory when Marquez escaped with a draw.
?I am sorry that I made a mistake,? said one of the judges in the Pacquiao-Marquez I. ?I should have scored 10-6 and not 10-7 in the first round.?
The 10-6 count was the correct mark because with just one knockdown, the perpetrator would automatically earn a 10-8 win. Succeeding knockdowns would score one more point each so that Pacquiao?s flooring Marquez two more times in the first round would amount to 10-6.
Too bad that rules say judges? decisions, right or wrong, stay.
And with that 10-7, first-round win by Pacquiao staying, Marquez evaded defeat through that draw result.
But in their rematch years later, Pacquiao won. Oh, yes, his split decision triumph drew howls of protest from Marquez?s camp. They were somewhat justified because it was a closely-fought contest.
But I must insist it was the correct score because Marquez suffered a knockdown. Without that knockdown, I will submit it could have gone either way?given that it was too close to call.
Before beating Marquez in their rematch, Pacquiao also defeated Barrera in a return bout that went the distance because Barrera, obviously wary of another knockout punch coming his way after bowing by 11th-round knockout in the first fight, kept on running from start to finish.
After the second fight with Marquez came the classic Pacquiao-Erik Morales trilogy.
But unlike in the fights against Barrera and Marquez, Pacquiao would lose to Morales on points in their first encounter.
It was also somewhat close and had Pacquiao not suffered an eyebrow cut in the fifth that bothered his vision with blood flowing down his face in the last 7 rounds, he might have won it.
But in their rematch, Pacquiao finally showed who was boss by knocking out Morales.
Not one to yield that easily, Morales, a typical Mexican endlessly oozing with pride, challenged Pacquiao a third time.
Obliging, Pacquiao unleashed his deadliest yet, destroying Morales in only three rounds in 2006.
I was right there in Vegas when Pacquiao silenced the predominantly Mexican crowd with devastating combinations that practically reduced Morales to shreds as though wolfed down by a hungry fox.
And now this, the rematch with Timothy Bradley on Sunday, April 13 (Saturday in Las Vegas).
Pacquiao had already been robbed of victory in 2012 via a controversial split decision that allowed Bradley to steal PacMan?s welterweight plum.
While Pacquiao (55-5-2, 38 knockouts) is on revenge mode, will he win?via knockout as he had promised?
A win, which is not unlikely, would not only keep Pacquiao?s winning streak of return bouts intact, it would give him back his world 147-pound crown.
Add the fact he?d also snap Bradley?s string of 31 straight wins, with12 KOs.
As always, Pacquiao is the 2-1 favorite?keeping yet the iconoclastic irony that whether champ or not, the odds would always go in PacMan?s favor.
Place your bets, please?
** ** **
ALL IN The University of the East Warriors have remained orphans as their new coach had yet to be named. Some quarters are pushing for Lawrence Chiongson (I don?t know him) and I say, why not? He was the last UE coach to pilot the Warriors to the UAAP Final 4. He may have his shortcomings?smoking in front of his players is one. But the late Ed Ocampo, the best guard this country has ever produced, would swig scotch from a glass hidden under his bench during PBA games. I know. I?ve seen it. And Ed smiled when I called his attention about it. And, like Chiongson, Ocampo won games for Toyota. What does UE want, a smoker that wins or a non-smoker that loses? Just asking, Sir.
