Praise for National Punch

By Al S. Mendoza

OK, OK, calm down, fellas.

Why must we fight?

Let’s leave the fighting to the boxers.

Why the whining?

It’s better to applaud than to upload anger.  Like a smile, applauding is good for the heart.

So, let’s stop questioning the victory of Manny Pacquiao?

He won, period.

He won by the slimmest of margins, by the skin of his teeth.

What’s wrong with that?

You win a basketball championship by either one point or 30 points, it doesn’t matter, right?

A win is a win no matter the winning margin.

A rose, by any other name, will always smell sweet.

So, let me you ask you again, you think Juan Manuel Marquez beat Pacquiao in their rematch one Sunday ago?

You must be kidding if your answer is yes.

No way for Marquez to have beaten Pacquiao.

Or, you must have watched a different fight?

It was a slam bang affair, but in the end, Pacquiao emerged the superior fighter after their March 16 brawl.

You can’t take that away from the National Punch, who delivered a Sunday Punch that nearly knocked the lights out of Marquez in glitzy Las Vegas, Nevada.

Actually, twice Pacquiao nearly dismissed Marquez with finality.

In the third round, Pacquiao floored Marquez with the decisiveness of a guillotine-operator that it was a miracle the Mexican had gotten up and survived the axe-like punch to the jaw.

And then in the 10th, Marquez got hit again, this time in the face, sending the Mexican in another dazed waltz.

Next came a rain of punches from the Pacman.

For sheer survival, Marquez clung to the ropes at one point in that deathly merciful round.

Again, how the boxer they call “Dinamita” survived that Pacman bomb and those subsequent dynamite punches thrown at him was a miracle that only God could explain.

In contrast, Marquez never staggered Pacquiao not even once in their 12-round fight.

Oh, yes, Pacquiao got hit several times by telling blows. But not once did his   knees wobble, his eyes become glassy, his body shake.

Pacquiao got hurt, yes. Very badly this time. His one eye was almost shut after the fight, created by a punch in the fourth that opened a nasty eyebrow cut. His wound was so ugly it needed 10 stitches to close.

So, let’s give it to Marquez. He became the toughest foe among the last 12 opponents that Pacquiao faced the last five years or so.

And of those 12 fighters, Pacquiao suffered only one defeat – against Erik Morales on points in 2005. But that sorry setback had been ceremoniously avenged with twin wins via a 10th-round knockout and a third-round knockout, respectively, in 2006.

In the second   knockout against Morales, I was in Las Vegas watching it live at the packed Thomas & Mack Center. I shouted myself hoarse when Pacman sent “El Terrible” crashing to the canvas in the third round, terribly forcing the Mexican legend into retirement.

In the Pacquiao-Marquez rematch last Sunday, there was a bit of controversy arising from the judges’ scoring.

Two judges were divided, with the third judge (Tom Miller) breaking the tie with a 114-113 score, giving Pacquiao the split decision victory that made him the first Filipino – and Asian for that matter – to win three world crowns in three divisions  (the first two were the flyweight and bantamweight titles).

The judging brouhaha (I scored it 115-112 for Pacquiao like judge Duane Ford) was reminiscent of their controversial split draw in 2004, when Marquez snatched victory in 12 rounds with the aid of a judge’s error.

In that fight, one judge scored it wrongly at 10-7 for Pacquiao in Round 1 when the correct score should have been 10-6 after Pacquiao knocked Marquez down three times in the first round.

The judge admitted his mistake that cost Pacquiao the title. But in boxing – as in many other sporting events – the score stands whether it is right or wrong.

In fairness to Marquez, he really fought a brilliant fight last Sunday and I consider that to be the main reason why some of you remain unconvinced over the decision to award Pacquiao the victory.

Marquez had appeared so good despite getting jolted dangerously twice in their rematch. I salute him and he deserved wearing the crown for many years.

Against a fighter like the precise and extremely talented Marquez in this memorable, though dangerous Sunday for Pacquiao, our Pacman indeed had appeared not in his usual deadly and bombastic self in the entirety of the fight.

But then, even the best among the best cannot seem to appear at their best all the time, all of the time.

Ranged against one of the best in Marquez, Pacquiao, the one icon the Filipinos look up to like a demigod, suddenly appeared as human just like you and me.

But to belittle his victory would be the unkindest shot we could inflict on the National Punch.

Marquez was a tough nut to crack. To applaud Pacquiao for having survived the toughest test of his boxing career would be like heaping praise on a Pavarotti concert.

Good for the heart.

Happy Easter!

(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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