Manong Max isn’t alone in his assessment that Manny could have done better. The latter’s own coach, Freddie Roach, who had predicted a knockout within six rounds, has also gone on record with an admission that Manny "could have fought better."
While the coach noted that Manny didn’t fight his fight in the first six rounds, he was happy that his charge did in the last six. Freddie conceded he was deeply worried by that third round when Manny seemed on the verge of going down.
Well, all’s well that ends well. In the last six rounds of the fight, Manny showed how great a champion he is. He danced and weaved himself out of harm’s way time and again and left Larios swinging wildly at thin air. That quick sidestep to Oscar’s left, which neutralized the latter’s storied right cross, was a thing of exquisite beauty. He executed that little move repeatedly throughout the fight. Larios seemed befuddled by it.
But the question remains: How come no knock-out? Actually, the two knock-downs of Larios weren’t that impressive, one in the seventh round and another in the 12th when a thoroughly exhausted Oscar couldn’t lift himself up on his gloves.
Several times in the fight, Manny delivered his patented one-two-threes flush on the bleeding visage of his opponent, Several times it seemed like lights out for the determined Mexican. But the guy just wouldn’t go down and stay down! Was he just bent on staving off retirement, which he promised if he lost this fight? Not yet, not now?
Or, the more cogent and worrying question: Were Manny’s punches simply not that hard? While his blazing fists could cut faces and draw blood, they couldn’t send one to dreamland? But what of his vaunted power, the expert opinion that while he was no boxer, he was one hell of a puncher, that one mixed it up with him at one’s mortal peril?
Inevitably, the questions of training, and of lifestyle, have come up. Manny’s focused training on this fight took all of one month. He was still in Manila doing his karaoke and beer commercials a month after Chololo had begun deadly serious training in Guadalajara, Mexico.
Manny wanted to come back after three weeks at the Wild Card gym in Los Angeles. Roach put his foot down and insisted Pacquiao devote at least one full month at the Wild Card gym. The coach banned all hangers-on, adoring kababayans and assorted alalays from the gym. He also decreed that when Manny came back after that month he would not train in Baguio City, but in Manila where he could better adjust to the climate.
Baguio would have been one hell of a temptation to the fun-loving champ. At least in Manila, Freddie had some allies in imposing strict discipline. After all, the three weeks before the fight were meant to sharpen his technique and get him mentally ready, not do the town every night or appear in every celebrity show that asked.
At the weigh-in before the fight, Manny made the weight limit. Not easily, as Freddie had predicted, but barely. His recorded weight was 129.5 pounds, half a pound under the limit and over the 128 Roach said he would come in at. Larios easily made the weight limit, coming in two pounds under. This may or may not have made a difference because Manny reportedly likes to report at fight time at about 140 lbs., his fighting weight during the second Erik Morales encounter.
But what this may show is that there were some miscues in training. We heard that a few weeks into training at Los Angeles, Manny was about 10 pounds overweight. That’s not too bad, and should have been easily lost during his daily runs and gym regimen. But it didn’t happen. Weigh-in time turned out a little hairier than expected.
It didn’t seem like a problem of stamina. Manny had a lot of gas to see him through the entire fight. He was pacing himself in some rounds, but that’s to be expected. The real speculation has to do with his punching power. No ordinary mortal would want to be at the business end of a Pacquiao punch, but opponents like Oscar Larios are no ordinary mortals. The guy trained like nobody’s business and it was probably that training, that focus, that seriousness that kept him on his feet while enduring the savage Pacquiao barrage.
Some local ringside analysts were talking about "maturity" in explaining Manny’s seeming restraint. One commentator even said that Manny deliberately eschewed an early conclusion, in his patriotic desire to allow his countrymen present at the Araneta Coliseum and watching all over the world "their money’s worth," i.e. an early knockout would have deprived them of the joy of seeing him perform his artistry.
I believe that to be unmitigated cow dung. Manny would have loved to add another KO to his record, particularly when the victim was one of Oscar’s caliber, a two-time former world champion. It would have been a conquest in the category of his knockout of Erik Morales, a former world champion too who had an unembellished record of never having been knocked out in a fight…until he met the Pacman.
But now that Larios fight is history, those who love Manny and are genuinely concerned about his future, not just their cuts of the fabulous purses he’s now making, ought to pound his ears with unceasing wake-up calls.
At age 27, he has at least several years left in him. How long depends on how serious he is in his future fights. Those fights will get tougher for him, not easier. Every newcomer wanting to make a name in the boxing world wants to do so over his ashes. These upstarts are likely to succeed if Manny gives more time to cockfighting, his movie and singing careers, and reveling in fleeting celebrity than preparing for critical fights.
Like many, I’m not sure that one month in LA, plus three weeks in Manila, was sufficient for Manny to reawaken the power everyone knows in his fists. Perhaps two months or more might have afforded the stamina and leg power needed to anchor and back up those devastating punches. We all know he has that in him. The fact he didn’t deliver was what disappointed many of his countrymen.
Still and all, the Pacman remains a certified national hero. He connects when he says his struggle is our struggle. But if all his fights are indeed for country and people, like his song says, then I think he should show that he gives his all for each and every fight. The problem has never been ability. It’s always been focus, preparation and execution. Precisely what they say the problem with Filipinos is.