HIS handlers, led by super trainer Freddie Roach, claim they’ve packaged a perfect knockout machine in eight-division world boxing champion Manny Pacquiao.
This has led some amazed fans to wonder if it wouldn’t be poor Floyd Mayweather Jr. clashing against Superman himself in the Fight of the Century.
Maybe superfight sellers didn’t mean it, but the Pacquiao-Mayweather clash on May 2 has already taken the trappings of a fantasy thriller, a grim fight to the finish between the forces of good and evil.
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The charismatic Pacquiao, pictured as a soft-hearted God-loving warrior, has been peddled as an unstoppable destroyer; and this has caused at least one online sportsbook window offering (at 50 to 1) that Mayweather would be gone in 60 seconds of the first round.
Buboy Fernandez, the Roach training deputy who should know a lot more about Pacquiao’s exact condition, stated that, in the event a knockout doesn’t present itself, they would be cocked to go as many as 20 rounds, eight more than what’s officially stipulated.
Just the same, members of the sports media keeping a tight watch on Pacquiao were kept in the dark after three sparring sessions were inexplicably canceled last week.
And to those who dared wonder if old cramps had started revisiting Pacquiao’s legs, the cool reply was Roach would preside over as the Pacman perfects a “secret weapon” this week.
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Meanwhile, Mayweather, tagged as an arrogant, abusive champion by Team Pacquiao, has been working out with similar seal, in relative calm.
The unbeaten Mayweather (47-0) has also preferred to stay on the ground.
“My focus is always being in control, in dictating the pace,” Mayweather told BoxingScene.com. “You’ve got guys out there who throw a lot of punches, almost all of them, but this hasn’t worked so far.”
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Mayweather refused to talk about his exact fight plans. However, his father-trainer, Floyd Sr., went as far as to hint of heavy body damages on the opponent.
“Being that Pacquiao is shorter anyway, you might try to hit him in the body and hit him right on the chin,” Floyd Sr. explained.
You see, it’s no small wonder the grizzled Floyd Sr. has specified Pacquiao’s suspect chin.
The obscure Arnulfo Torrecampo landed a stiff right to the chin in stopping Pacquiao, a greenhorn from General Santos City, cold in February 1996.
Floyd Sr. is also obviously aware of at least two more instances, not to include the 2012 knockout loss to Juan Manuel Marquez, that saw Pacquiao pick himself up from the floor after taking a punch to the chin. This came in a fight against tough Nedal Hussein at Casino Filipino in Parañaque, and later against a frail, obscure Kazakh aspirant at Rizal Park in Manila.
In both knockdowns, Pacquiao had to visibly get undue assistance from the referee in order to survive.
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ASSIST YOU, SIR: Delfin “Eng” Asistio, 76, didn’t have to explain where he derived his lifetime motto. “I’m always here to Asistio-assist you,” he once cracked after helping a young cager from Cavite to be taken into the Jose Rizal University basketball training team. Kuya Eng, a standout public servant who served three full terms as councilor in Mandaluyong City, will be interred this afternoon at Paradise Garden on Aglipay Street in the city. “There’ll be no other one like him,” said civic leader Nandy Charvet, who had teamed up with Asistio in various poor-oriented projects. A lean, calm-eyed fellow with a ready smile for everyone, Assistio was in charge of his city’s Senior Citizens Assistance Office at the time of his passing. He was a main cog in the JRU sports development body, at the forefront of Mandaluyong’s other development programs. The multiawarded Mandaluyong Children’s Chorus, a gem in Mayor Benhur Abalos’ hat, was Eng’s brainchild. Kuya, paalam, salamat sa iyong mga kabutihan.)