The Pac Man cometh

THOUGH defeated in his match with Mexican boxer Erik Morales, super featherweight Filipino fighter Manny "Pac Man" Pacquiao succeeded in uniting the Filipino people as no one has ever done in the entire history of the Philippines.

For one night, March 19, 2005, Pacquiao carried the full weight of the aspirations and hopes of the Filipino nation -- the 80 million in the Philippines and the eight million overseas -- on his slight 130-pound frame.

The Pac Man may have lost by a unanimous decision -- all three judges had identical scores of 115-113, but the equally unanimous consensus was that he fought gamely and valiantly to the end.

Speaking on behalf of the Filipino people, President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo said: "I praise Manny Pacquiao's bravery, ability and fighting spirit. I am sure he will bounce back from his loss. We cheer Manny as an outstanding Filipino. He sets an example of the toughness we need to surmount our trials and in fighting our way to become a strong Philippines."

For one night, there were no bombings or armed skirmishes anywhere in the country. There were even no reports of crimes anywhere.

Eid Kabalu, spokesperson for the separatist Moro Islamic Liberation Front, told reporters that he was proud of Pacquiao because he is a native son of General Santos City in Mindanao. "It's sad because most of us expected he would win by knocking out his foe. It's good he did not fall because that would have been more painful for us," he said.

Kabalu said that throughout Mindanao, common villagers and rebels were all listening to their radios, and some rebels even ventured to town centers to watch the boxing match on TV, he said.

New People's Army spokesperson Gregorio Rosal told the press that Pacquiao fought valiantly but lost, and if there were doubts about his defeat, Filipinos could seek a rematch.

Senate majority leader Francis Pangilinan echoed the sentiments of the people when he said: "No matter what, Manny will always be the hero of the Filipino masses. He makes us proud to be Filipinos, win or lose. We are behind him all the way."

I watched the pay-per-view fight from the South San Francisco home of my friend, Gloria Navarrette, together with about 20 of her friends and kin. When diva Lani Misalucha stirringly sang the Philippine national anthem before the fight, we all stood up from our couches to stand at attention, placing our right hands over our hearts. If we had flags, we would have waved them as proudly as we saw many of the proud Filipino spectators in Las Vegas doing.

The TV announcers informed us that so many Filipinos had bet on Pacquiao that he had become the odds-on favorite in the Las Vegas casinos. You would have to bet $140 on Pacquiao to win $100. Conversely, if you bet $100 on Morales, you would win back $140.

When the opening bell rang, we lustily cheered Manny's every punch and winced at every blow delivered against him by his fierce Mexican opponent.

The Pac Man won the first round convincingly but Erik "El Terrible" Morales made us realize that this would be a long difficult fight when he grittily rebounded to win the second round. We thought Manny won the third round but the TV judges saw it differently and awarded it to Morales as they did the hard-fought fourth round.

It would be that kind of fight, it dawned on us, a technical one, decided by how many punches were thrown and how many had actually landed. With this as the framework, it would be difficult for Manny to win. He would need to score a knockout.

But the knockout of a sort occurred in the fifth round when Morales head-butted Pacquiao and caused a bloody cut to open over Pacquiao's right eye and blood to stream all over his face.

A physician from the Nevada Athletic Commission rushed to the ring to examine the cut. He then asked Pacquiao: "Do you want to continue the fight or to stop the fight?" The Pac Man responded "I want." The physician was confused as to what Pacquiao meant. Pacquiao would later explain that he couldn't hear the guy too much so he responded only to the first part of his question. Eventually it was cleared up and the fight was allowed to continue.

But it would be an enormously uphill battle from that point on as Pacquiao could only see from his left eye and he needed both eyes to see where his opponent's blows would be coming from to effectively fend them off.

Jim Lampley, the ringside TV announcer, and commentator Larry Merchant discussed the issue of the gloves used by the boxers.

Freddy Roach, Pacquiao's trainer, had loudly complained before the fight that Pacquiao's manager-promoter, Murad Muhammad, had been "snookered" by Morales' promoter, Bob Arum, into agreeing that the fighters would use Winning gloves, with thicker padding, than the Cleto Reyes gloves, favored by Pacquiao, which had thinner pads.

When Merchant asked Pacquiao after the fight what would have happened if he had been allowed to use Cleto Reyes gloves, Manny confidently answered "I would have knocked him out." When Merchant asked why then did he not use them, Manny responded that it was because the Nevada Athletic Commission required them to use Winning gloves. It was then explained that the state commission did not require them to use any particular brand of gloves but that they used Winning gloves because that was in the contract. Manny seemed confused at that point.

In an interview with boxing writer Keith Terceira before the fight, Muhammad had claimed that Roach had been trying to poison Pacquiao against him in order to have him pull out from his exclusive contract with Muhammad and to then sign up with Roach's group. Muhammad disclosed that Roach had claimed that Muhammad had accepted millions from HBO to promote Pacquiao's fights and was only giving Pacquiao peanuts.

Muhammad explained that he received $700,000 from HBO and had paid Pacquiao $500,000 from this amount as agreed and that the books were open for all to examine as he had nothing to hide.

The infighting between Pacquiao's manager and his trainer must have had an effect on Pacquiao and it is essential that their differences be settled before the Pac Man's next fight.

Manny does not need these distractions. Removing them from his shoulders would take a big load off, leaving room for the tens of millions of Filipinos who are already there, anxious and eager for Manny to win his next fight.

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