Pacquiao fights fight of his life

LAS VEGAS – A nation divided by partisan politics will stand as one for Manny Pacquiao today. With all the hype of the presidential derby simmering to an end, politics and everything else take a back seat as its favorite son of the ring seeks to establish himself as the best featherweight in the world.

The 25-year-old Pacquiao will try to wrest the International Boxing Federation (IBF) and the World Boxing Association (WBA) belts from sturdy Mexican Juan Manuel Marquez at the MGM Grand Arena before a capacity crowd of 10,000. Both made the weight easily at 125 pounds.

It will be a fight with all the makings of a classic and probably the start of a trilogy of a rivalry between two featherweights at the top of their game.

For the General Santos native, a victory in their scheduled 12-round bout will firmly establish him as the world’s best pound-for-pound fighter since his tremendous win over Mexican legend Marco Antonio Barrera last November in Texas.

"Para sa mga kababayan natin ito," said Pacquiao, who received a telephone call from President Arroyo Thursday to wish him luck.

For the 30-year-old Marquez, it will be a defining fight that will give him the recognition he had yearned for four years after being ducked by the best fighters in the division.

"You need these kinds of fights to be able to be considered one of the best," he said.

Pacquiao remained the odds-on favorite on the eve of the fight with minus 170 ($170 bet winning $100) against plus 150 ($100 bet winning $150). He went negative 200 in the morning but the figure checked itself with the bulk of Mexican bets coming in at midday. Pacquiao was given 6/5 for a knockout and Marquez 4/1.

Both are brandishing fierce forms with Pacquiao coming with 12 knockouts in his last 13 wins in a 38-2-1 (29 KOs) record. Marquez had stopped 11 of his last 13 fights in a 42-2 (33 KOs) card.

They also brandish varying styles. Pacquiao is a shifty power-hitting southpaw who put on incredible pace and pressure and throw punches in all angles to devastate rivals. Marquez, on the other hand, is admittedly technically superior than the Filipino with a lethal counter-punching style and a crunching right straight.

Despite being the clear favorite, some members of the Team Pacquiao were tense and listless on the eve of the fight and were promptly admonished by the Filipino champ.

"Bakit kayo tense? Relax lang. Para lang tayo nasa training," he said.

Confident of the sharp form of his fighter, American trainer Freddie Roach said he wouldn’t be surprised if the fight ends early probably in the first three rounds.

"We won’t rush things, we’ll be selective and pick our spot to attack," said Roach.

Even to the very eve of the fight, Mexican legend Nacho Beristain engaged in a little psy-war, saying he "hopes the fight will be clean and nothing strange would happen. I will call the attention of the officials on the head butts and elbows Pacquiao may use during the fight."

The people’s champ was never known to be a dirty fighter and was in fact a victim of the roughhousing ways of Agapito Sanchez in their brawl of a fight in San Francisco in 2001.

Instead, it was Marquez himself who was notorious for head-butting, employing the tactic on Derrick Gainer to wrest the WBA diadem in Michigan last year.

Veteran referee Joe Cortez, who had worked more than 100 title fights, will be the third man on the ring. There will be no three-knockdown rule and nobody would be saved by the bell including on the last round.

Intentional foul blow would draw a two-point penalty with the perpetrator settling only for a draw if there would be a stoppage.