Pound for pound, he’s the best

(November 11, 2006) A WEEK before the best night in Philippine boxing 2006, the trainer responsible for making Manny Pacquiao a “killing machine” has said that Erik “El Terible” Morales didn’t know what he was getting into. I wasn’t surprised by Freddie Roach’s bold statement. Not only because he knew how vastly improved Paquiao has become prior to demolishing Morales in the third of their scheduled 12-round bout on Saturday, Nov.  18, but it was because of his experience training many fighters, including Mike Tyson. He has seen it all, until Pacquiao came along, his student who is “very hungry” for boxing knowledge. It was foolish of the Morales camp not to have heeded Roach’s warning. With all due respect, but I only have to blame them.

Now, with all “great” Mexican fighters tasting the canvas in the hands of Pacquiao, they are resigned to the fact that perhaps no Mexican fighter can climb up to the ring and challenge the southpaw from General Santos city (update: but who has moved to Sarangani, which he now 2010 represents in the House of Representatives.)

It is up to Marco Antonio Barrera, who holds the title in the super featherweight division, to face Pacquiao or vacate the post he’s precariously enjoying right now. However, I advise Barrera to train real hard, harder that he had ever trained. But then again, I think he will also be dealt with the same fate as Morales had, the way Pacquiao knocked Barrera out in their first meeting.

Roach told us during the post-fight conference that they want Barrera as the next opponent. He said Pacquiao only needs 3-4 months to prepare, as he warned that Pacquiao is only “gonna get better.”

For all intents and purposes, all the accolades also go to Roach who describes Pacquiao as “like a son to me. He listens and is always willing to learn.”

In the last two years, we have witnessed how Pacquiao morphed into a one-punch knockout artist with his iron-fisted left straight to become a left straight-devastating right-hook combination fighter who can end your professional career in an instant.

Couple this with his lightning speed and what he himself described as a punch powered by the whole Filipino nation, Pacquiao seemed almost surreal.

What makes it worse is that Pacquiao seems to be having fun. Before he climbed onto the ring during the fight, he jogged his way with his own song (though the words were inaudible as far as I was concerned) blaring. His own CD!, from Pacquiao, who this early already has a movie that retold his young life – a true Cinderella Man who once peddled on the streets of General Santos City when he was a young boy – to become a multi-millionaire a Filipino hero.

In Saturday’s fight, I asked Bob Arum how much Pacquiao earned that night. His response: The base pay was $3 million, $1 million more than his previous fight against Morales, not including pay per view orders from HBO, which could be at least 350,000 buys.

So far, I’ve seen all the fights of Pacquiao and Morales and always admired the El Terible’s courage and counter-punching style. Besides beating Pacquiao in their first match, he always had telling blows that obviously hurt Pacquiao, even in the grand finale. But while Morales remained as who he was – fierce, cocky, and at times scary – Pacquiao was a different fighter in all three bouts, always better than the last one. It should be noted that his only loss to Morales was hastily done since he had to go up from 127 lbs. – his former fighting weight – to 130 lbs. because Manuel Marquez suddenly backed out from his anticipated rematch with Pacquiao.

This early, many boxing pundits and even the fighters themselves are trying to say that Pacquiao must meet some unknown fighters in the super featherweight and junior lightweight divisions for obvious reasons. They claim to want a piece of Pacquiao and because they are unbeaten. They think that they have worked their way to also earn a shot at a multi-million dollar fight with Pacquiao. Hmmm…

Bob Arum has declared that Pacquiao is so far the best pound-for-pound fighter of today. Not just in his division but in any weight class. Because of the way he demolished Morales and his stellar career, and his past bouts with Marquez and Barrera. And because none has shown as much as what Pacquiao have done in today’s boxing – the continuing development of a champion fighter to a great boxer who has learned the science of delivering devastating blows in his tiny but solid frame. How Pacquiao, whom we used to know had difficulty speaking the language – and now speaks it though sometimes mangled – is able to understand Roach and his instructions and to put into action his trainer’s direction is simply marvelous. It is like a full-length well-edited action movie shown in director’s cut.
Said Roach of Pacquiao, “He’s my pride and joy.” (RFL)