Sweet revenge

LAS VEGAS – Sweet revenge. Manny Pacquiao recaptured Saturday night (Sunday afternoon in Manila) his World Boxing Organization (WBO) welterweight title at the MGM Grand Arena, the same venue where he lost the same title on June 9, 2012, in a highly controversial match to then challenger Timothy Bradley Jr. of the United States.

Boxing aficionados, experts and media all acknowledged Pacquiao won that fight. An unprecedented review of the fight tape by a special panel of judges ordered by WBO had the jury unanimously ruling that Pacquiao won. One of the judges of that fight, Ms. CJ Ross later went on leave after she saw the fight between Floyd Mayweather Jr. and Canelo Alvarez, which took place after the Bradley-Pacquiao match up, a draw.

This time around, Pacquiao dominated Bradley, earning for himself a unanimous decision. Glenn Trowbridge had Pacquiao ahead, 118-110, while Michael Pernick and Craig Metcalfe both saw it also for Pacquiao with identical scores of 116-112. From where I sat as member of the Solar Sports panel doing the blow-by-blow commentary for Solar-GMA 7, I had, like Trowbridge, Pacquiao ahead at 118-110. Before the fight, we had uncharacteristically stuck our neck out by stating that Pacquiao would win by either knockout or unanimous decision.

As expected, Pacquiao started aggressively and maintained the pressure except for some brief spells and threw more punches. Steve Camp of the Las Vegas Review-Journal stated that the Filipino boxing icon landed the higher percentage of punches, 35 percent to 22 percent and had the edges in jabs connected (50-32) and power punches that found their mark (148-109).

 The loss was Bradley’s first after more than 30 fights and in his 10-year boxing career. Ten of those fights were all for world titles.

The loquacious Bradley had boldly declared before the fight that he would knock out Pacquiao even if his record had only 10 KO’s to show in a 31-0 record before Pacquiao-Bradley II. The whole corner of Bradley was so confident of victory, not just by decision but by knockout, to the point that Bradley trainer Joel Diaz said before the fight to Ed Graney of the Las Vegas Review-Journal that, “I think this is Manny Pacquiao’s last fight. Like everything in life, things come to an end. I’ve trained fighters in their prime, and I’ve trained fighters toward the end of their prime. Manny has a lot of wear and tear on his body. His lifestyle changed to the point where he is compassionate to his opponents. When that happens, you don’t belong in the sport.”

But Saturday night, Diaz and Bradley had to eat their words and humble pie. The fight proved that Pacquiao did not lose the June 2012 encounter because two of three judges said Bradley won.

Veteran boxing commentator Larry Merchant interviewed both Pacquiao and Bradley right after the fight and Merchant (who has publicly argued with Floyd Mayweather Jr. on international television saying that if he, Merchant, were younger, he would whip Mayweather’s ass, or words to that effect) asked in the usual pointed Merchant fashion a leading question to Pacquiao. Merchant referred to many wild looping rights that Bradley threw but which didn’t find their mark. Merchant asked Pacquiao that after having made Bradley miss so badly, didnt he feel that he (Pacquiao) was up against an amateur? The polite Pacquiao simply said that Bradley had improved considerably and that the American was a tough opponent. 

Although somewhat humbled and chastened in defeat, Bradley’s corner tried to take something away from Pacquiao’s dominant and emphatic performance by saying that the defending champion suffered a calf injury. Bradley would then add that Pacquiao was one of the world’s best fighters and that Pacquiao “was the better fighter tonight.” And for good measure, Bradley repeated during the Merchant interview that Pacquiao “was the better fighter tonight.” The guy seems to be paving the way for another night of meeting Pacquiao since “tonight” was just one of those nights when Pacquiao was better. 

Both fighters had a lot at stake in the fight. A defeat for Pacquiao would have seriously endangered his boxing and political career. He would’ve have been driven off the limelight and would have started his senatorial run on a losing note. Boxing itself would have suffered some losses and would lose some of whatever luster it had as a result of the Pacquiao-Marquez-Morales and Mayweather exploits. Pacquiao had managed to capture global attention because of his rags-to-riches story and his ascendancy into the political scene.

Now, Pacquiao has recovered a lot of lost ground even if his last victory by knockout was in 2009 against Miguel Cotto. There is widespread talk that Pacquiao may have lost some punching power although his hand speed and footwork remain great strengths as attested by Brandon Rios, Shane Mosley, Antonio Margarito, to name a few.

 Some basic and crucial decisions need to be made although there is talk of Pacquiao-Marquez V after the latter is expected to run over Mike Alvarado in their forthcoming fight. There is of course Mayweather who is also expected to make mincemeat of Marcos Maidana in the next few weeks. Bob Arum says the Mayweather-Maidana match is “crap” with the former installed a 12 to 1 favorite. 

Mayweather-Pacquiao can still happen only if the former wants it to happen. He’s waiting for the right time, perhaps when Pacquiao’s tremendous hand speed and footwork suffer a little diminution because of father time and Pacquiao’s other non-boxing activities.