A morale-boosting victory

CHIANG MAI, Thailand – By any standard, the Manny Pacquiao-Miguel Cotto bout for the latter’s World Boxing Organization (WBO) title was a massacre in the Filipino boxing icon’s favor. I watched the live telecast of the fight Sunday morning on Thai cable TV in this northern city of Thailand.

This is my second visit to this bustling tourist-oriented city since December 1995 when it hosted the Southeast Asian (SEA) Games. I was here then as chairman of the Philippine Sports Commission (PSC). It was my first SEA Games as PSC chairman and the Philippines landed third in the overall standings behind host Thailand and Indonesia.

I’m back here now for two different reasons: as guest of the Philippine chairman of Habitat for Humanity, Francisco (Popoy) del Rosario, and to attend to some professional concerns in academe and management. But these are two different stories that I will take up in succeeding columns.

When referee Kenny Bayless called a halt with about 55 seconds into the fight, I had Pacquiao ahead 109-100. I gave Cotto the first round but only after some thought since it was too close to call. The next 10 rounds were clearly Pacquiao’s even if in some of them, he looked hurt from the blows the bigger and stronger Cotto delivered.

As I had said in the Friday morning broadcast of GMA’s “Unang Hirit” with host Arnold Clavio and co-guest, boxing encyclopedia Atty Ed Tolentino, Pacquiao’s speed is going to be a key factor. If Cotto slows him down and catches Pacquiao with a solid left hook, Pacquiao could be in serious trouble. Cotto failed to slow him down and instead paid the price of engaging Pacquiao toe-to-toe in the middle of the ring.

Two trips to the canvas, once each in the third and fourth rounds, made Cotto realize that all his pre-fight hype about Manny (“If he – Manny Pacquiao – thinks he is going to win seven titles in seven weight divisions now, he has picked the wrong moment, the wrong fighter and the wrong opponent.”), was just that, hype.

Previous opponents, like David Diaz, from whom Pacquiao wrested the lightweight crown, one of the unprecedented seven world titles he has now won, all attested to Pacquiao’s hand speed and footwork but after the fight and after they had been flattened. Ricky Hatton was another grudging admirer of Pacquiao’s speed and power.

Now comes Cotto, who was quoted to have said after the fight that he did not see the different directions Pacquiao’s punches were coming from. I had seen the development of that hand speed, courtesy of the perfect partnership between trainer Freddie Roach and Pacquiao in September 2006, when the latter was deep in training for his second bout with Erik Morales. As I saw it then, from that point on, Pacquiao had become almost a complete boxer with speed and power in both hands and footwork that would befuddle his opponents.

With his stunning victory, the world boxing community has nothing but praises for Pacquiao. In praising Pacquiao, the international press sympathizes with Filipinos in the many moments of grief we have suffered over the last several months because of the natural disasters that have descended upon our nation with disastrous regularity.

The Bangkok Post, Thailand’s largest English broadsheet, devoted an entire page in its sports section on Monday to Pacquiao’s feat. The lead headline was: “Pacquiao an unstoppable force”. The sub-headlines of the story were: “Filipino hammers welterweight champion in Las Vegas”; “Brave Cotto refuses to quit despite terrible beating”; “Talk resurfaces of blockbuster showdown with Mayweather”.

The two other stories in the page depicted the national euphoria created by Pacquiao’s win (“Country brought to complete standstill by its favorite son”) and the humility in victory displayed by Pacquiao (Humble Pacman plays down achievements”).

With Cotto out of the way, there is no one else looming in the horizon but Floyd Mayweather Jr. Dan Wetzel of Yahoo! Sports says that the “Pacquiao-Mayweather match must be made”.

I had thought that Pacquiao had somehow prepared for Mayweather when he fought Cotto, although the two have contrasting styles. Pacquiao had done the Muhammad Ali rope-a-dope bit precisely to test the strength of a younger, stronger and full-fledged welterweight and he proved he could take the blows.

Mayweather cannot possibly punch that much stronger than Cotto and Pacquiao took all of Cotto’s punches with aplomb. Mayweather is a technical/defensive fighter who has his speed going for him. He rarely goes on the attack and prefers to wait. Because Mayweather waits (and could wait interminably for his opponent to mount an attack), we could have a fight with low entertainment value. Let’s see how the negotiations work out. It seems we’re very close to having this blockbuster come true.

Back in Chiangmai, even the taxi drivers and hotel personnel congratulate us on Pacquiao’s victory when they find out we’re Filipinos. It does make us truly proud. It is indeed a welcome respite from all that makes a dispirited country from time to time.