You can bet on it: Another KO win for Pacquiao

By Al S. Mendoza

IMAGINE yourself as Manny Pacquiao. 

      You are the country’s toast, almost now the darling of world boxing. Why because your fights the last five years or so have practically become big time.

      When you fight, the world stops.  The streets empty.  It’s ghost town, fellas.

      You make people glued to their TV sets. That began when you fought Lehnoholo Ledwaba of South Africa in 2001.

      You were merely a substitute to the indisposed challenger. 

      Sensationally, you knocked out Ledwaba in the sixth.  You became world champion in the bantamweight division.  You got your second world crown.  The first was the WBC flyweight title in 1998.

      The fight with Ledwaba allowed you to crash the world boxing stage. 

      Goodbye minor league. Hello big league.

      In 2003, you knocked out Marco Antonio Barrera, heavily touted as the indestructible Mexican. 

      That legitimized your claim to world fame.

      The 11th-round demolition of Barrera made you an instant world superstar.

      Nobody has ever done that kind of brutal defeat on Barrera, rated then as the world’s pound-for-pound boxer by Ring Magazine, the bible of boxing.

      After Barrera, you lost to Erik Morales, Barrera’s nemesis.

      But then, that was but a temporary setback as you didn’t lose badly, dropping a 12-round decision only because you got head-butted and that slowed you down.  The blood oozing from your eyebrow from the fifth impaired your vision, allowing Morales to escape with a hit-and-run tactic.

      In your rematch with Morales last January, however, you showed the world who was the real master. 

      You punished him unrelentingly en route to a smashing 10th-round knockout victory.  It marked the first time in 52 fights that Morales got knocked out.

      What a feat, indeed.

      Before that fight, you were a certified millionaire already.

      After that fight, you were laughing your way to the bank – almost now a billionaire.

      You have become like a magnet, attracting people from all walks of life whether you are atop the ring of off it.

      You make moths out of everybody: We drop everything to rush to watch you fight on TV.

      You have become the apple of our eyes, so to speak.

      Ah, what kind of magic do you have?

      You didn’t even finish the elementary grade, and here you are, out-earning almost everybody, including corporation presidents, COOs and CEOs.

      In this third fight with Morales today, Nov. 19 (I’ll be at ringside in Las Vegas, God willing), I know your agenda: Win.  In fact, that’s the only agenda you have.

      You can’t afford to lose.

      You lose and the world could cave in on you.

      You have signed product endorsements costing millions. You can’t afford to let them go down the drain just like that.  That seven-fight deal alone with Oscar De La Hoya is worth nearly a billion pesos.  A defeat at this stage could dent your reputation, a no-no to sponsors latching on to the magnet of athletic stars like you.

      So, win you must today.

      My prediction?

      Same old story: Pacquiao to win by knockout.

      The antidote to the Pacman talisman has yet to be invented.

(For past columns, click http://sundaypunch.prepys.com/archives/category/opinion/general-admission/)

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