I expect Pacquiao to win by KO

By Al S. Mendoza

IF YOU CAN’T expect Manny “Pacman” Pacquiao to win today, Sunday, woe to you!  Either you are a Mexican, or you don’t like Pacman’s moustache.

I expect him to win. By knockout.

Of all the boxers I know in the whole wide world today, Pacquiao has that punch so uniquely delivered on a Sunday.

Sunday PUNCH, they call it.

Maybe, he’s done that already and David Diaz – God forbid – lies in a stretcher badly shaken while you are reading this piece.

Or, if, the fight’s not on yet and you have a bag of peanuts with you, go, wager it to someone with Mexican blood running in his veins.

Don’t look at my Pareng Jess (Garcia), please?

He likes Juan Manuel Marquez and that’s that. Marquez only.

Now, if Pareng Jess has some feelings for Diaz, hidden or otherwise, fine, fine.  Understand that Pareng Jess’ great, lamented father, from Pharr, Texas, was of Mexican lineage.

* * * *

I root for the Pacman not because he is my kababayan but because he has the tools to dethrone Diaz, the mauler from Chicago with a Mexican heart and mind. He can do it.

Only once did I not choose Pacquiao to win. That was in 1998.

Pacman wasn’t in tip-top shape then.

Drunk with success, Pacquiao had pigged himself to death. Terribly overweight, bloated, days before the fight, he killed himself trying to make the weight.

He failed.

By fight night, he was still overweight.

Because of that, he lost his world flyweight crown (112 lbs) even before he climbed the ring to fight a Thai weirdly named 3K Battery. By knockout.

* * * *

Rules are rules.

When you are the champ and you fail to make the weight, you automatically lose your title.

Worse, you are still required to fight the challenger on the scheduled fight night – your crown already in the hands of your opponent.

Even if you pulverize your crown-grabber in the ensuing no-bearing bout, you will still not be able to retain your title.

So, win or lose, you are a goner. That’s what happened to Pacquiao when he held the world flyweight crown. He threw it away, gave it to an unworthy challenger – on a silver platter yet.

But that was 10 years or so ago.

Today, we see a completely different Pacquiao.

* * * *

Some men become greater than great after they fall.  Failure becomes their inspiration for success.

I say it this way, “It’s not in the rising but in the falling.”

Pacquiao fell from grace but he rose from the pits to become the country’s – and Asia’s – greatest fighter of his time.

Three years after that debacle in Thailand, Pacquiao, 22, was world champ again – in the super bantamweight division (122 lbs).  In 2001, he knocked out Loehweba, the African champion, in the sixth round.

Seven years later, at age 29, he won the super featherweight crown (130 lbs), beating Juan Manuel Marquez by split decision to become the  first Filipino ever to win three world  titles in three different divisions.

If Pacquiao hasn’t captured the world lightweight crown from Diaz today, June 29, to become the first Filipino to win the 135-lb division title, darn and drat!

Maybe, a different Pacquiao, an impostor, had fought Diaz today?

Or, maybe, some voodoo-voodoo had gotten into the fight as to make Pacquiao fall prey to jalapeno-powered witchcraft?

Ah, I trust my instincts.

Pacquiao will win in six, in three if Diaz decides to mix it up right from the opening bell.

Pacquiao (46 wins, 3 losses, 2 draws) is faster and definitely stronger as attested by his 35 KO victories, compared to Diaz, 32, (34-1-1), who has but only 17 KOs.

As proof of my faith in Pacquiao, I had bet my one-year subscription of Sunday PUNCH for a Pacman victory.

No worries, Kuya Ermin?

(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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