Pacquiao bigger than any lotto jackpot

By Al S. Mendoza

WHO needs a lotto jackpot?

Not Manny Pacquiao.

The year is still five months away from being declared history and Pacquiao has already stashed away close to P500 million.

He pocketed nearly P200 million on March 16 in 36 minutes.

On June 29, he earned no less than P300 million in 27 minutes.

Pacquiao absorbed some pain before escaping with a split decision victory in 12 rounds over Juan Manuel Marquez on March 16 in Mandalay Bay, Las Vegas, Nevada.

He was practically  unscathed, unhurt, before he knocked out David Diaz in the ninth round on June 29, also at Mandalay Bay, Las Vegas, Nevada.

Every round in a boxing match lasts three minutes. In between rounds is a two-minute break.

Three times he had fought in nearly a year at Mandalay Bay, a resort hotel casino in the Nevada desert.

Three times he won. The first was last year, when he beat a scared Marco Antonio Barrera in 12 rounds.

That was a pathetic fight because of Barrera’s pathetic strategy to climb the ring with the intention of losing.

Beaten to a pulp before getting himself knocked out by Pacquiao in 2003 in Texas, Barrera avoided Pacquiao like the plague in their rematch to succeed in his aim to lose on points – not by knockout.

Barrera announced his retirement after the fight.

I applauded.  He is through in boxing.  He’s given us some great moments. Every fighter of note deserves some applause as a fitting sendoff.

* * *

In a span of four months, Pacquiao won two world boxing championships in two weight classes (130 lbs and 135 lbs) to add  to his two previous world crowns (112 lbs and 122 lbs), becoming the first Filipino to win the world lightweight crown and the first Asian to pocket  four world titles in four different divisions.

Some fighters toil for 10 years, fight 30 fights, and never win a single world crown.

Marquez, from whom Pacquiao snatched the world super featherweight crown (130 lbs), is not retiring and, instead, he is chasing Pacquiao in the 135-lb division.

Good luck.

Diaz, whom Pacquiao had dethroned as world lightweight champion (135 lbs), has not hinted retirement despite a battered face on June 29 that needs a plastic surgery to return it to its original form.

* * *

I had predicted Diaz to be knocked out in six rounds. If he banged it out from the opening bell – which he did – he’d last only three rounds.

I was wrong on both calls.

Freddie Roach, Pacquiao’s American trainer, was right when he said, “Pacquiao will knock out Diaz in the ninth round.”

Not to brag once again but all along, I had known a knockout ending for Diaz. Which round it would happen was always the hardest to predict.

I’ve   seen his fights many times.  He’s just too slow for the lightning-fast Pacquiao.

Although he is the reigning world champion and has lost only once, Diaz is also not a power-puncher.  His knockout record is proof: only 17 KOs in 36 fights (34-1-1, win-loss-draw) before he faced Pacquiao. Pacquiao had 34 KOs in 51 fights before June 29.

As I keep saying in TV-radio interviews before the Pacquiao-Diaz bout, Morales, Barrera and Marquez were much tougher opponents than Diaz.

Diaz did not fall early as I had predicted simply because the Chicago-raised Mexican trained hard enough for the   fight, plus the fact that he is also practically made of granite.

Other boxers would have kissed the canvas before the sixth round from the power punches landed accurately by Pacquiao right from the opening bell.

“But you are still right, Al,” said Danny Isla, the vice president of Toyota Motor Philippines. “You predicted a KO win for Pacquiao in either six or three rounds. So, six plus three equals nine. Right?”

He-he-he!

(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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