(L-R) Manny Pacquiao and Juan Manuel Marquez exchange blows during their welterweight bout at the MGM Grand Garden Arena on December 8, 2012 in Las Vegas, Nevada. Al Bello/Getty Images/AFP
MANILA, Philippines — “My heart stopped.”
This was how Manny Dagala, a condominium security guard in Mandaluyong City, described his shock upon seeing Manny Pacquiao being knocked out by Mexican Manuel Marquez and then staying flat and unconscious in the sixth round of their fight in Las Vegas, US.
Dagala was among the 15 people who watched the fight live on a 25-inch laptop at the lobby of a condominium building.
“I thought he was dead and I could feel my heart skipped,” Dagala told the small crowd who could not believe their hero had fallen.
Rey Fernan San Isidro, 24, an accountant, was equally stunned by the end of the much touted fourth fight between the two boxing rivals.
“Was that real? I’m disappointed. He should have concentrated on being a boxer, a boxer should be a boxer,” San Isidro said of Pacquiao, who has branched to politics and has won a seat as congressman of Sarangani.