PALEMBANG, Indonesia—We must indeed all be eternally grateful to Manny Pacquiao.
“Does Pacman deserve a victory motorcade for his win against Marquez?” wonders one text message from mobile no. +639173333333.
More than at anytime in his brilliant career, we must get out and show our admiration for him.
This, despite the result of his third fight with Juan Manuel Marquez, who must be getting record accolades from compatriots in Mexico.
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You see, the Pacquiao who did battle with Marquez may have not been as brilliant and sharp as the national boxing hero who never failed to raise the national spirit in his past wins.
But did Pacquiao for a moment tarry in his self-assigned role to always do and give his utmost best for flag, people and country?
“Let’s all rally behind Pacman,” calls Leah Ferrer Patungan, an executive of the Rural Bank of Bolinao.
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The call to support Pacquiao reached this reporter a day after the controversial bout, which we were able to watch live from the lobby of the Limas Hotel at the heart of South Sumatra.
Yesterday, we were also asked by readers back home why we have not commented on the Pacquiao fight.
There was actually a column done right after the bout, which got stalled by faulty transmission from here. Late as it may be, here’s that item:
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The final judgment defied logic, but there should be one answer to crying questions on what happened in Las Vegas on Saturday (Sunday in Manila) where Manny Pacquiao was declared winner of a bout many people thought he had lost on points.
Pacquiao won and retained his world welterweight boxing title after visibly yielding the contest to arch nemesis Juan Marquez of Mexico.
Of course, it would be doubly illogical to suspect a throw-away.
Pacquiao, in the first place, tried all his mighty best to score a big win and justify the awesome 10-1 prefight odds in his favor.
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However, by the end of the sixth round, at the halfway point of the celebrated fight, a perplexed Pacquiao was groping hard for his old self.
Actually, Pacquiao, blazing at the opening, had appeared headed for a sensational finish.
He missed a couple of big lefts but readily slashed through the mid-ring with sparkling double jabs, scoring twice to take the opening round.
No clear edge was established in the second—both fighters were very tentative—but by the third, Pacquiao pressed harder, sliding in and out, scoring sporadically with that killer left hook menacingly cocked. The third round ended with Pacquiao visibly ahead by at least two points.
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Then Marquez and his corner made a solid shift. The peppery Mexican re-established himself at an uncanny edge, either sliding off range or conveniently slipping under Pacquiao’s swirling lefts.
Pacquiao winced, the crowd started to hiss, and chants of “Marquez! Marquez!” started to rend the ringside air. Smooth and sharp, Marquez rode on the borrowed momentum. He dug in with combinations, connecting with straights, hooks and uppers.
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Marquez, after winning the succeeding rounds, was up by at least a point at the half.
What would become clear in the final six rounds was the absence of the sharp, classy world pound-for-pound king. Pacquiao was there but not as smooth and polished as promised by Freddie Roach.
He had the fierceness but lacked the smarts—the original hunger and thrilling cougar rhythm. A bigger problem presented itself when Pacquiao, now pressed for time, tried to shift to his old wild, devil-may-care tiger self.
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He howled, he seethed, and he banged his gloves. He also made the sign of the cross at certain breaks before storming in. But Marquez was often nowhere to be found.
Instead, Pacquiao, hitting a new low in ringmanship, would be met and stunned by viper combinations, rattled by stinging uppers.
Pacquiao tagged Marquez with a looping smash at the bell to take the final round, but this was too flimsy to cross out the countless points gained by Marquez in previous rounds.
What’s harder to overlook now was the thought, presented by Roach, that Marquez had elected to bulk up to rumble and bang it up with the bigger, stronger Pacquiao. It was too late when Roach realized he had been misled.
Marquez resorted to a last-minute physical build-up in order to be able to stand up to Pacquiao’s killer blows, outsmarting and repeatedly scoring with a clinical display of nifty punching.
It wasn’t exactly uplifting, but in the end, Pacquiao would be declared winner, thanks to hideous misjudgment.