Pacquiao to win in 3, if not 6 rounds

By Al S. Mendoza

NOTHING to lose, everything to gain.

That is the battle cry today of Antonio Margarito when he fights Manny Pacquiao in Arlington, Texas.

If he loses – and I’m almost sure he would – Margarito won’t lose face, if not ego.

Always, there’s nothing to be ashamed of if one bows to Pacquiao.

Against Pacquiao, who is at the top of his game, one’s expected to lose.

The one handsome aspect each time one fights Pacquiao is the purse a Pacman challenger gets.

Which means Margarito, like those before him, would also emerge from the fight richer than ever.

All fighters that Pacquiao had fought the last five years or so have earned a fortune each, given the stature that Pacman has achieved in his mercurial rise to world fame.

Oops, wait a minute, there was one fighter who lost face when he lost to Pacquiao: Joshua Clottey.

And that’s because Clottey came not to fight but, obviously, merely to collect his purse.

By covering his face with both his hands during virtually the entire 12-round fight, Clottey embarrassed his fellow Africans for the cowardly act he displayed last March, also at the Cowboys Stadium in Arlington, Texas.

In a weird twist, Clottey got a bonus from Jerry Jones, the Cowboys Stadium owner, for “helping draw” the record crowd to the fight.

With the record purse he got (some $2 million), Clottey retired and is now living comfortably in his native Ghana.

Will Margarito do a Clottey today?

I don’t think so.

It is in Margarito’s nature to attack and attack.  And because he hates to back pedal, he is perfect for the Pacquiao trap:  “Come to my parlor.”

Margarito’s 5-inch advantage in height over the 5-foot-6 Pacquiao and another 6-inch margin in reach over Pacman would be negated easily by Manny’s speed and lightning-quick, power-packed punches.

The so-called “Tijuana Tornado” will be suddenly reduced into a lumbering “Tijuana Tomato” so that he becomes an easy target of the machinegun punches that Pacman has been known for all these years.

Margarito is 32 and has a not-so-handsome 38-6, win-loss record, with 27 knockouts.

Pacquiao is only 31 years old and has an impressive 51-3-2, win-loss-draw record, with 38 KOs.

I see Pacquiao the winner by knockout before the sixth round.

The end could come much earlier, depending on how Margarito would approach the fight.

If he keeps his promise and decides to be immediately aggressive, Margarito could fall within three rounds.

To me, Margarito will be extremely lucky if he will last eight rounds.

And for Pacquiao to suffer the impossible and lose?

A lucky punch from Margarito, who will gain everything with an improbable upset victory over Pacquiao.

In boxing, nothing is impossible.

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