Who’ll be boxing’s next wholesale bore?

(LAWLESS: The interior department would do well to request Benjie Lim, mayor of refurbished, reorganized Dagupan City, to lend a hand and help resolve the hopeless market-area traffic mess in Urdaneta, Pangasinan. Motorists returning to Manila on Sunday had to beg and cry for a full hour before they could crawl through 200 meters of mud, stalled public work equipment, holes, diggings right in the middle of the main avenue. Government owes it to tax-paying commuters to help them keep their sanity on our lawless roads.)
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Unlike Donnie Nietes, Manny Pacquiao packs explosives, but that doesn’t mean the Pinoy boxing superhero is totally safe from dishing out a big flat bore against the unsinkable Juan Manuel Marquez in Las Vegas next month.
Nietes, crowned critically as new WBO light flyweight king, did not actually vow to sizzle and deliver a KO masterpiece.
But there was resounding frustration—you could feel the quiet groan, the gnashing of nicotined teeth—from wet-market area fans the morning after the drab coronation.
These poor people were visibly not prepared for the tasteless bout.
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So why did Nietes, hyped to a golden glow, end up a wholesale bore?
Answer: He was very scrimpy and retailed his petty punches.
This was the unanimous verdict of plain vendors, the grizzled gang that honestly knows the difference between a wholesale and short sell.
Nietes didn’t have enough guts?
Cried Col. Pat Piñol, keen-eyed fight aficionado from Kidapawan in North Cotabato: “I can’t see how Nietes won the fight. He kept running away. As a Filipino, I’m ashamed of the decision. Not that I didn’t want Nietes to win. But that was a hollow victory, a shame.”
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Who was at fault?
Nietes was pushed into the spotlight after a series of Filipino failures abroad.
There was the dismal defeat of the Smart Gilas national basketball team, the nasty drubbing suffered by the Philippine Azkals, the washout of celebrated Olympic boxing-slot bidders.
With spirits at a new low, it was natural for local fans to pray for a balm.
Everybody hereabouts who cared about sports needed one big assurance that could resend the message our athletes were still among the world’s best.
Too bad Nietes, tiny and petty, was pushed into an impossible spot.
But he could have also fought fiercer, harder, better.
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Of course, it’s not too sane to even suspect Pacquiao could himself become a big bore next month.
Not only does the Pacman, a certified sizzler, own tested weaponry totally different from what Nietes nervously packed.
You see, if Nietes was not even a full firecracker, Pacquiao has remained a live bomb, ticking inside the ring.
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Now hold it.
Not to doubt Pacquiao, but there were also those quick to ask about the last time the Pacman had dropped that killer bomb in a fight.
Was it last year, the other year yet in his sensational stoppage of the strong and difficult Miguel Cotto?
More than in his recent bouts, there now looms the distinct possibility of Pacquiao scoring a sensational, sizzling stoppage.
But Pacquiao and his trainer will have to make up their minds.
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It’s like this. The first time Pacquiao and Freddie Roach laid out their plot, they appeared in agreement about going for an early knockout, the quicker the better.
But last heard, modern boxing’s greatest tandem sounded they were set to make new adjustments.
Roach was quoted as saying they would now take the bout one round at a time.
They no longer sounded keen about going for a quick KO, as earlier planned.
OK, there would be no rush.
But, at the same time, there were also cries for Pacquiao to serve a favorite sizzler.
As the famous fight expert Michael Marley contends, fans are sick and tired of Pacquiao waltzes.
They wanted something more explosive and memorable.
Enough of the cordial numbers, the dull dances against Margarito, Clottey, Mosley.
No more Bulrom, please. Rakenrol!