Was Pacquiao saved?

By Al S. Mendoza

AGAIN, in accordance with deadline rules, I wrote this piece four days before fight day today, March 16.

So by now, I believe that many of you already know who won in Las Vegas, Nevada.

Did our own Manny Pacquiao win? Or did our Pambansang Kamao lose to the Mexican Juan Manuel Marquez?

Of course, I had predicted as usual a Pacquiao victory.

I hope I was right?

If I bungled it, sorry. Like Muhammad Ali, already the greatest boxer of all time, I can’t be right all the time, all of the time.

At times, we are right. At some other times, we are wrong.

That’s universal because nobody’s perfect. Only God is perfect.

In interviews I gave to radio and TV networks in Manila before the fight, I had but one uniform line: Pacquiao will win by knockout because, if the fight lasted the distance, chances are Marquez might escape with a point’s victory.

That’s because Marquez, the erstwhile 130-pound world champion before the fight, is famous for his hit-and-run tactic, not to mention his being endowed with winged feet.

That tactic can accumulate points which will be hard to overhaul once they’ve been piled up early in the fight.

That was what happened in 2004, when Marquez survived three knockdowns in Round 1 and went on to snatch a split draw with his hit-and-run tactic from Round 2 onwards.

I had said that Marquez would run again in today’s rematch with Pacquiao. And, if he did, Pacquiao might find it hard to land the killer blow.

But I had also insisted that Marquez could not run for 36 minutes. He’d be tagged by a knockout punch one way or the other, if not cornered to the ropes where Pacquiao would unleash his famous power-packed hits.

I had also argued that since Pacquiao shacked up with Freddie Roach, the keen-eyed American trainer, their team-up went on to produce one of the most wondrous partnerships in boxing history.

Previous to today’s fight, Pacquaio and Roach had teamed up in 12 fights. Only once did Pacquiao lose – against Eric Morales in the first act of their classic trilogy.

Who could then fault their 11-1, win-loss record?

And, if you ask me, that defeat to Morales in 2005 came only because Pacquiao got cut by a head-butt in the eyebrow, considerably slowing down the Filipino’s momentum as blood dripping down his eyes affected his vision and strategy.

Look, in their next two encounters, Pacquiao evaded being cut by a head butt. Result: He knocked Morales twice – very convincingly at that!

So, as I said, barring any major hitch like another cut caused by a head-butt or something, Pacquiao should be it today. By a knockout, no less.

If Pacquiao won, he’d be a world champion again, nailing his third global crown after earlier claiming both the world thrones in the flyweight and bantamweight divisions.

If he lost – God forbid not – it’d be the darkest day yet this year for a country reeling under the weight of the most massive of corruption charges in the innermost sanctum of the government.

And, if Dear God had allowed it to happen to the remaining genuinely certified person left uniting this fractured populace, He’d be really that mad at this poor nation of ours.

That should be taken as a veiled message to the chief tenant at the Palace.

In short, God’s drowning wrath could sink our National Fist.

I prayed hard that the Pacman, like Noah, would be spared.

(Readers may reach columnist at also147@yahoo.com. For past columns, click http://sundaypunch.prepys.com/archives/category/opinion/general-admission/ For reactions to this column, click “Send MESSAGES, OPINIONS, COMMENTS” on default page.)

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