INQUIRER Sports

THERE WAS NO PUNCHING PICNIC FOR Manny Pacquiao in Las Vegas but the Filipino boxing superstar cannot be blamed.

In fact, Pacquiao and his entire crew came to the fight expecting a fight, nothing less.

While Pacquiao was left to feast on two hapless foes?David Diaz and Oscar De La Hoya?in Las Vegas last year, he had an altogether different outing yesterday.

He unwittingly ended up doing a demolition job.

It was not exactly messy, but the stoppage of Ricky Hatton was neither sweet nor methodical.

Reason: Pacquiao had to be extra mean in order to prevent the boxing contest from deteriorating into an ugly war.

The result was a savage devastation of the brawling, grabbing British victim.

The process was also horribly brief that it left fans, both here and in Las Vegas, feeling shortchanged.

?Walang lasa, kulang (It was bland, tasteless),? groaned a couple of security guards at the Marketplace Cinema in Mandaluyong where the bout was beamed live.

?Puro hangin lang pala, sipunin naman (He?s all air, a sad sack),? one bespectacled male fan said of Hatton.

The general feeling was that, if Hatton had shown up with half of his overhyped worth, there would have been a more colorful ending.

There was some displeasure, but nobody was grieving.

?Sarap maging Pinoy, (It?s great to be Filipino),? gleefully shrieked a comely female fan from Makati over postfight television yesterday.

The streets, empty of passenger jeepneys in the morning, were resonant with beer-fueled championship hymns later in the cloudy, drizzly Pacman afternoon.

The merrymaking predictably lasted till the wee hours of morning.