Pacquiao’s gift

By Al S. Mendoza

I SAID Manny Pacquiao would knock out Oscar Larios between Rounds 6 & 8.

Turns out Pacquiao didn’t want to knock out Larios.

My prediction was doomed even before I made it.

Pacquiao had merely wanted to win. On points.

I didn’t fight aggressively, Pacquiao said in Pilipino.

If you are not aggressive, how do you expect to win by knockout?

You don’t use a toy gun to kill a terrorist.

KNOCKDOWN

In the 7th round, Paquiao knocked down Larios. Ordinarily, Pacquiao would follow that up with ferocious, rapid-fire punches a la FPJ.

We saw none of that.

Even Freddie Roach, Pacquiao’s talented American trainer, admitted it.

Manny was just coasting along,” Roach said of Pacquiao. “He did not turn up the heat at all.”

Thus, when Larios, 29, got up from the 7th-round knockdown, we didn’t see a Pacquiao, 27, unleashing the killer blows to end the 130-lb fight.

Just boxed along, coasted along.

IN CONTROL

I knew I was in control of the match,” Pacquiao, 2-time world champion, said. “I was leading on points, and I did not want to risk being aggressive because he might catch me with a lucky punch.”

Can’t buy that.

Pacquiao got himself tagged by several “unlucky punches” in the third and he didn’t even knee-wobble one bit. He was shaken in the ropes with a Larios barrage, particularly a left hook to the jaw.

But he survived the assault.

His supposed turn to counter-attack never came.

He simply didn’t want a knockout victory, period.

“He looks too kind to be knocked out,” he said.

Can’t buy that, either.

The dice was loaded?

NO ‘THRILLA’

In the 12th, Pacquiao knocked Larios down again.

Again, the flurry of punches that should have followed the knockdown typical of Pacquiao each time he smelled blood wasn’t there.

Just boxed along, coasted along.

This high noon of July 2, at the Araneta Coliseum known as the Cubao Big Dome, the 12-round, unanimous decision win was what Pacquiao only needed.

And yet, someone said this was the “Thrilla in Manila II,” referring to the Thrilla in Manila in 1975 that saw Muhammad Ali TKO Joe Frazier in the 14th in what is now known as the “Fight of The Century.”

Nothing’s farther from the truth. 

ONE-WAY STREET

Unlike the Ali-Frazier fight, the Pacquio-Larios bout was but a one-way street. 

For, despite his willingness to avoid knocking Larios out, Pacquiao clearly scored the clearer, albeit harmless, punches to easily get the three judges’ nod: 117-110, 118-108 and 120-106.

I scored it 119-109 only because Pacquiao gifted Larios with a third-round win.

    In that round, Pacquiao virtually offered his face, jaw and head for fist-tattooing, absorbing a rain of punches that put the stunned crowd on the edge of their seats.

Un-stung after emerging from that minor scare, Pacquiao resumed his no-knockout mode, brushing aside a knockout opportunity every time it presented itself – particularly in the 7th and 12th when Larios appeared ripe for a knockout.

Pacquiao himself gave himself away: “If I pushed a little harder, I think you all know what the result would have been.”

A knockout, what else?

BARRERA, MORALES

Larios’ fellow Mexicans, Marco Antonio Barrera and Erik Morales, were a lot tougher than Larios. And yet, Pacquiao had knocked out both – Barrera in the 11th round in 2002 and Morales in the 10th round last January.

Pacquiao knocked out Barrera and Morales, Mexico’s contribution to boxing’s Hall of Fame, because he had – unlike in the Larios fight – an aggressiveness of knockout proportions.

If Larios appeared good, tough and courageous, give credit to Pacquiao.

 If   Larios succeeded in avoiding a knockout, that’s only because Pacquiao allowed him to.

Simply put, Pacquiao did not want Larios (56-5-1) to be his 34th knockout victim in recording his 42nd victory against 3 losses and 2 draws.

GIFT

And yet, he was telling us the Larios fight was his “gift to us.”

Well, turns out his idea of a “gift to us” was a points victory.

If   I know you all, fellas, a knockout would have been the perfect gift.

If   it   were a bullfight, the matador didn’t win; he merely survived.  The “gift” (bull) was very much alive – and kicking.

But then, aren’t beggars supposed to be not choosers?  

Spectators can only wish, hope.

We may not like the “gift” (points victory) but a grace is a grace is a grace.

Let’s take it. A win is a win is a win.

It’s like food on the table in a time of want. War time.

Better than nothing.

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