Pacman Eats up the Golden Boy

Thanks to a couple of free tickets from Dennis, I got to watch the Pacquiao - de la Hoya fight with Kiko in Rockwell (live via satellite).

I think this is the first time I've gone inside a dark theater to watch a boxing match. It was full and luckily we had guaranteed numbered seats. You could feel the excitement of the crowd as he pre-event matches finally wound down. And when Pacquiao first appeared on screen, wrapping his own hands (!) as Roach looked on, the crowd began to clap and a muffled roar let off from the audience.

Of course I wanted Pacquaio to win but I had serious doubts about him winning against the future hall of famer, de la Hoya. Was I ever so wrong. During the first round, I wasn't too excited and refused to clap at the puny jabs that Pacquaio threw against the golden boy's gloves. He's wary of running into that jab and vaunted left hook of de la Hoya I thought.

Then I saw something remarkable, Manny threw a left hand lead that kicked back Oscar's head. Not that big a punch but you could see Oscar's face change. Wow, I thought, Manny didn't even set that up with a right jab. He just went in and threw it. And in the following rounds, he did it again, and again, often times spinning to Oscar's left and avoiding the expected right counter punch. Amazing! Manny didn't seem to have lost any of his speed.

To sum up the experience, it was a satisfying and jubilant win but I agree with the many pundits that it wasn't even close to the Pacman's best matches.

I personally think that Manny's best fight remains his sensational win against Barrera way back in 2003. The latter was being touted as one of the best boxers ever and Manny was an unheard of Filipino. But Manny shocked the hell out of the boxing community by overwhelming Barrera, stopping him in the 11th round. Manny was amazing in that fight. His combinations quickly landing before Barrera could move.

Well, this last fight with de la Hoya wasn't great but it certainly was memorable. Manny still showed his quickness and a new trait... patience. That it was a mismatch is not Manny's fault really, Oscar was just so slow. Maybe he trained too hard... maybe he just couldn't fight at that low weight.... Maybe he went on a South Beach or an Atkins low carb diet... he he he.


I think Roach said it best. "My fighter trained to win, Oscar trained to make the weight".