Manny recalls toughest fight ever

MANILA, Philippines — With 71 fights under his belt since turning pro in 1995, super WBA welterweight champion Sen. Manny Pacquiao has been in several exacting scrapes in the ring. But in a recent conversation, Pacquiao said the hardest opponent he ever faced in the toughest fight of his career was Mexico’s Erik Morales in the first bout of their trilogy at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas in March 2005.

Pacquiao was 26 at the time and Morales, 28. It was Pacquiao’s debut as a superfeatherweight and on the line were the vacant WBC International and IBA 130-pound titles. Pacquiao scaled 129 1/2 pounds for the fight and Morales, 130 flat. Entering the ring, Pacquiao was a 7-5 favorite. His record was 39-3-2 compared to Morales’ 47-2.

There were several extraneous circumstances that surrounded Pacquiao’s first pay-per-view event. First, the fight contract stipulated wearing the foamy Japanese-made Winning brand of gloves. Pacquiao preferred the Mexican-made Cleto Reyes brand but couldn’t go against what the contract called for. Second, he underwent a blood test two days before the fight when results of a previous extraction were lost, purportedly by his American promoter Murad Muhammad. Pacquiao couldn’t hydrate properly after the blood test because he was careful not to exceed the weight limit for the weigh-in the next day. He later complained he felt dizzy right before the fight started.

Morales was paid $2.5 million for the fight and Pacquiao, $1.75 million. The fight generated $15.7 million from pay-per-view hits of about 350,000. A crowd of 14,623 attended the event which was Pacquiao’s seventh in the US and third at the MGM Grand Garden Arena after Lehlo Ledwaba in 2001 and the first fight against Juan Manuel Marquez in 2004. Pacquiao was coming off a fourth round knockout win over Thailand’s Fahsang 3-K Battery in an open-air makeshift arena in Taguig. The win over Fahsang was one of the most devastating stoppages in Pacquiao’s career as a single uppercut lifted both the Thai’s feet off the canvas before he collapsed. Morales’ previous fight was a loss by a majority decision to Marco Antonio Barrera four months before and that’s why he was the underdog.

Pacquiao recalled that in the Morales fight, he suffered a nasty cut over the right eye from a headbutt in the fifth round and it was a major distraction. “It happened in the early rounds,” recounted Pacquiao. “I had a hard time because of the cut.” Morales said he controlled the fight from a distance and turned it into a tactical encounter. But Pacquiao relentlessly pursued Morales, trying to force the Mexican to engage. In the end, Pacquiao threw more punches, 894 to Morales 714 but landed less, 217 to 265. Pacquiao, however, had the edge in connecting more power shots, 183 to 169.

In the last round, Morales stood his ground, switched to southpaw and brawled. “I decided to stop myself in front of him because I wanted to give the public what they deserve,” he said. It was an admission that he never intended to slug it out up to that point. By then, both fighters were exhausted. The three judges Chuck Giampa, Dave Moretti and Paul Smith scored it 115-113, all for Morales.

More than his battles against Antonio Margarito, Marquez and Miguel Cotto, Pacquiao said the first Morales fight was the hardest. Pacquiao and Morales fought twice more. In January 2006, Pacquiao stopped Morales in the 10th round at the Thomas and Mack Center in Las Vegas and in November that same year, Pacquiao won the rubber match by a third round knockout, also at the Thomas and Mack Center.