The oft-repeated saying in
boxing is that a boxer has a plan … until he gets hit. That’s why it was so
disappointing to see Manny Pacquiao abandon any semblance of a plan that could
secure him a win against the wily Floyd Mayweather, even though he was not hit.
Where was the dynamo who
was supposed to swarm Mayweather with punches too rapid for the eye to see?
Manny is no Ali but the huge disparity in the sheer number of punches thrown
and connected by Mayweather made this an embarrassing no-contest, no matter
what the pundits may say.
Pacquiao is known to throw
hundred punches per round. That boxer was nowhere in evidence in tonight’s PPV
extravaganza that is expected to generate about a billion dollars in revenue,
after every cent is counted.
I saw the fight with a group
of Filipino friends (no mystery who I was rooting for!) and a pall of gloom
descended after the fourth round – Manny’s best round – when it began to dawn
on us that Pacquiao was being outclassed by the unpopular Mayweather, who
slipped punches with an ease that was painful for Manny’s fans, both at the MGM
Grand in Las Vegas and outside.
“I thought I won the fight,”
said Manny after the fight. “He’s moving around. It’s not easy to throw
punches when he’s moving around so much.”
Really? You didn’t know
that, Manny, even though all the boxing fans around the world knew? What about
Freddie Roach, your coach?
That’s another thing.
At the corner, Floyd
Mayweather, Sr., Mayweather’s coach, was infuriated with his son for his
supposed lack of action. That’s what motivates fighters. What are you doing, the
dad scolded the son between rounds, disgust and anger written all over his
face. This, when Mayweather was clearly ahead on points!
Freddie Roach, on the
other hand, seemed hardly engaged with his charge. There was no emotion, no
anguish, no sense of a loss looming to inspire a spirited and furious attack by
Manny. If the origin plan fell by the wayside for whatever reason, weren’t you
supposed to come up with another, Freddie?
If Pacquiao could convincingly
carry the last two rounds, rounds 11 and 12, he would still have a chance but
Mayweather handily won both, extinguishing any flickering hope his opponent may
have harbored.
The highest-grossing fight
in history was billed as a fight between good and evil but in the end it came
down to a contest between superior skills against merely good skills. Floyd
Mayweather will never win any popularity contest, given his record of domestic
violence and reckless personal life, but in the ring he proved to be the more nuanced
and effective boxer in every department, and for that he deserves recognition
as one of the best ever.
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