You won’t find the next Pacquiao

You don’t want the heyday of Manny Pacquiao to end but you know that the Pacman is only human and eventually he has  to hang up his gloves.
There is nobody quite like him but boxing will live long after he bids the ring adieu and we will need new champions to root for.
I have long dismissed the tag “the next Pacquiao” as the Philippine boxing industry searches and evaluates the next great crop of Filipino hopefuls.
The bar Pacquiao has set is so high that nobody will be able to come close to his achievements in the near future.  In terms of skill, excitement, courage, and hard work, no Filipino fighter is in the same league.
So we will have to take the next batch of aspirants on their own merits, resisting the temptation to make comparisons to Pacquiao.
Last Friday, when four championship fights were staged at the South Greenheights Subdivision in Putatan, Muntinlupa City, we peeled our eyes for some signs of a new breed of champions. We found diamonds in the rough, in need of more seasoning and exposure to be able to blaze new trails for Philippine boxing.
Joan Imperial won the Luzproba mini flyweight title with a unanimous decision over Jovel Romasasa. This is a regional title since there are similar championships in the Visayas and Mindanao.
Imperial has not lost in 11 fights, winning eight and drawing three.  He fought like a smaller boxer to close in and pound Romasasa’s midsection.
Imperial has potential and could be a future champion given the right sequence of bouts.
Jhuniel Ramonal defended his Philippine super bantamweight title by escaping with a close unanimous decision against Raul Suco of La Trinidad, Benguet.
In a slam-bang affair that went the full 12 rounds, the gutsy Suco looked like he was on his way to grab Ramonal’s title. In the last round, he got tagged by a body shot that he felt was a low blow and ended up complaining on the canvas.
But it gave the impression that it was a knockdown and he was subsequently given the count that proved the difference in the fight.
The third title fight was the least entertaining and was a clear mismatch of styles. Ardin Diale won the Philippine flyweight title with a unanimous win over Richard Garcia but there was hardly any action.
Diale was more content horsing around in the ring while Garcia, clearly a counterpuncher, refused to mix it up as well. Diale missed the opportunity to shine, given that this weight category is where most fighters start making their names on the international scene.
The last title bout featured Ronald Pontillas defending his Oriental super featherweight crown against Jun Talape.
Pontillas is a wily, thinking fighter who plays it careful and smart. He has matured significantly from the days when he would lose fights he was dominating because he ran out of steam.  He seems better conditioned now and it showed in his unanimous decision triumph.
Allow me this one comparison to Pacquiao, though. The key ingredient missing in the four title fights was a boxer with the star quality you look for in a ring idol.
Most of the fighters had skill and courage but lacked an exhilarating performance level that the audience could hitch on to. Maybe that X-factor can never really be harnessed or taught and can be felt and seen only in a rare star like Pacquiao.