Wanted: Pacquiao the Boxer

By the time you read this, the entire country will be watching Kenny Bayless raising the hand of Manny Pacquiao (pohon). The streets will be empty. Houses will erupt with cheers and the country will be in a fiesta mood all day long. But will this be the sight we'll be seeing today? Yes if.

Pacquiao is mentally prepared (void of external distractions) and becomes the total boxer that he needs to be, up against the classy Morales. It's really as simple as that, but easier said than done.

When Pacquiao faced Morales last year, I had written that the real opponent on top of the ring was not Morales per se, but all the off-the-ring distractions that Pacquiao had to face while training for the fight. If the Pacman knocked out all those distractions away from his head, he would've cruised to a win on points. But that's history. Today, it looks like those distractions are absent from his training camp and Pacquiao couldn't be readier and hungrier for today's fight. He's cocked, fired up and ready to rumble.

But this is only half of the solution. There are more "ifs" that the Pacman must also address to settle the score with Morales. And all these have to do with his boxing. It may sound ironic how a top-caliber boxer might need to improve on his "boxing," but up against Morales, he doesn't have a choice.

The scouting report indicates that Pacquiao must be prepared to fight a taller fighter with excellent boxing skills, a longer reach, a stiff jab, decent defense, great stamina, rich experience and a granite chin. Sounds invincible? Yes, but not quite. All one has to do is look up the fights of Morales against Zahir Raheem and his first fight against Marco Antonio Barrera which he won but which many thought he really lost.

In these fights, Morales appeared to be slower than his foes. He has serious problems when having to face quicker and faster opponents who can come in and out of punching range in the blink of an eye. Moreover, signs of frustration were present when Morales couldn't get started quickly and had to play catch up in the later rounds.

The key to beating Morales is getting a head start from the get go. Pacquiao has to be aggressor of the fight and must not allow Morales to dictate the tempo. He must be prepared to see Morales throw double or even triple jab leads in his attempt to control the fight. Since he's shorter and also has the shorter reach, Pacquiao must use his edge in quickness to get inside Morales's jab and throw quick jab-straight combinations of his own.

Morales has said that he'll be applying pressure to have Pacquiao on a back-pedaling mode all night long. And he's right. The Pacman looked so awkward in their first fight that he went through the ropes a couple of times in his attempt to stay away from Morales. In such a case, Pacquiao is better off clinching when pressured rather than pulling away with Morales on the chase. By clinching, he stops any momentum Morales might gain when moving forward and won't expose himself to the long punches of Morales that admittedly look good when they land (even if these don't hurt). Moving forward not only makes Morales look good. It also registers pogi points with the judges even when not throwing punches.

Pacquiao's offensive thrusts will also need to be polished. He can't come to the fight with only his buzz-saw ways that waylaid most of his foes. This worked against inferior boxers who didn't know what to do and couldn't come up with a counter-punching reply against Pacquiao. But Morales showed real class when he calmly dealt with the on-rushing Pacquiao through a classic display of counter-punching. Pacquiao's style of piston-like boxing left him open on defense on many occasions, and whenever Morales landed a good punch, the Pacman was on reverse mode as quickly as he attacked with his punches.

The buzz-saw ways he can and should maintain, but only after setting this up with a tactical approach of jab-straights into the defense of Morales. He should also bring back his quick in-out and side-to-side footwork that befuddled Barrera. This led one TV commentator to say that Barrera didn't know where to find Pacquiao when he wanted to hit him and he didn't know from what angles Pacquiao's punches were coming.

So who will we see today?

Pacquiao the boxer, not the Pacquiao the slugger, is a must on top of the ring. And many analysts have said this is what we'll be seeing this morning. Well there's only one way to find out. Go Pacman!

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Time-out: Do we need to change the system? Isn't there are more pressing need to change the way our leaders think?

You can reach me at [email protected].