'It should've been stopped'

HOLLYWOOD – Buboy Fernandez is just one among the many who think that the fight shouldn’t have gone the distance.

“Hindi na dapat tumagal pa ng nine rounds (It shouldn’t have lasted nine rounds),” said Fernandez Sunday as he got ready the trip back to Los Angeles from Dallas.

Fernandez, one of Pacquiao’s cornermen, said the referee, Laurence Cole, or the ring physician should have called a halt to the fight after Antonio Margarito continued to take a terrible beating.

“Dapat itinigil na. Nag-suffer pa tuloy yung isa (They should have saved Margarito from further suffering),” he said.

Margarito absorbed 411 power punches from Pacquiao in 36 minutes of action. His face was a bloody pulp, his eyes nearly shut, and reports said he’s set to undergo surgery Tuesday for a fractured eye socket.

The most damage was on his right eye, the target of Pacquiao’s vicious left. As early as the fourth round, there was swelling underneath the eye, then it started to bleed, the lump almost as big as a ping-pong ball.

More than a couple of times, the referee and the ring doctor checked on the eye, but each time, they let the fight continue.

“My concern was if he can still see, and he said he can still see,” said the doctor.

“I waited for an opportunity to stop the fight, but Margarito kept on fighting back,” said the referee.

Margarito did fight back, like a true Mexican warrior, but the truth is he only landed his punches in the late rounds when Pacquiao engaged him in a toe-to-toe battle.

“I want the people to see the excitement that’s why I traded punches with him,” said Pacquiao.

“Wala na talagang pupuntahan yung laban kaya dapat na-stop na (The fight was going nowhere so it should have been stopped),” Fernandez said.

However, Pacquiao’s trainer and childhood friend admitted that Margarito was too big and too strong for Pacquiao that he withstood all the punches thrown at him.

“Kinaya ni Margarito ang suntok ni Manny. Masyado talaga malaki. Seventeen pounds ang difference,” he said of Margarito, who climbed the ring at 165 lb after weighing in at 150 the day before.

“Manny kept on telling me on top of the ring that Margarito was really big,” said Fernandez.

“Malaki talaga brod,” he remembered Pacquiao, who was at 148 for the fight, as saying in between rounds.

Too big, yes, but never too good for the Filipino champ.