Pacquiao’s fight focus suspect

By Al S. Mendoza

 

HERE we go again.

Freddie Roach has said Manny Pacquiao will win by knockout on Nov. 6 (PHL Time).

Same old song.

How many times have we heard Roach make a knockout prediction win for Pacquiao?

He’s been saying that since 2010.

And not one knockout has come true.

Instead of scoring a knockout, Pacquiao got himself knocked out.

Fighting too confident after leading in all three scorecards after the fifth round, Pacquiao got tagged by a killer right with a mere tick left in the sixth.

No, Juan Manuel Marquez didn’t plan the knockout.

Only a pseudo boxing pundit would say such crap.

Pacquiao got knocked out by accident.

Consumed by overconfidence, Pacquiao forgot all about throwing caution in the wind.

He knew he was well ahead.

And so, lulled by false illusion that he could finish Marquez off in the sixth, Pacquiao walked into a booby trap.

Careless and reckless, he got smacked cold in the face by the hardest punch he would ever absorb.

Pacquiao fell flat on his face.

As he lay on the floor almost motionless, Pacquiao scared every soul, including his wife Jinkee seated at ringside.

Thank God he was all right.

The first words Pacquiao uttered when he came to was, “What happened?  Where am I?”

He would recover, as all great fighters like him did.

He came back in 2013 and decisioned Brandon Rios.

Next, he would defeat Chris Algieri in 2014.

Algieri went crashing down the canvas six times but the virtual clown from New York still managed to survive and salvage a loss on mere points.

Then last year, Pacquiao outpointed yet again Tim Bradley for a 2-1 win in their lackluster trilogy.

And now this, the fight with Jessie Vargas next month, eight months after saying he was retired last April.

Not surprisingly, Roach bristled at a Pacquiao KO win.

“The knockout will come by the ninth round,” Roach, Pacquiao’s long-time trainer, said.

Oh yeah?  Who are you kidding, Freddie?

I’ve heard that before.

The last time Pacquiao scored a knockout was in 2009.

And only because Miguel Cotto had become so badly battered, forcing the referee to halt the fight in the 12th and final round.

Pacquiao by technical knockout a.k.a. TKO.

Pacquiao will defeat Vargas, all right, but only if he gets in tip-top shape.

Not by knockout, though, but on points.

If Pacquiao climbs the ring not thoroughly trained—which is likely, given his hectic schedule in the Senate—he faces imminent danger in  Vargas, who is no pushover as he is the reigning WBO world welterweight champ.

I like Pacquiao to win, again.

But as he is now serving two masters—boxing and the Senate—with equal passion and dedication, his fight focus in Las Vegas is suspect.

He needs a truckload of luck to unseat Vargas.

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