(FIRST OF 2 PARTS)
by Michael D. Sellers *
* Michael D. Sellers served at the US Embassy, Manila from 1986-1989. He also made movies in the Philippines from 1990-2000 (Umiyak Pati Langit, Anak Ng Dagat, and Goodbye America). He is married to a Filipina and has been living in Los Angeles since 2000. He still makes movies. He misses the Philippines a lot.
LOS ANGELES – Another Pacquiao fight – another drubbing of a much larger opponent, and Pacquaio’s legend as a boxer grows. But the fight between Manny Pacquiao and Antonio Margarito produced not just a memorable pay-per-view experience worth every penny of the $64.95 it cost – it produced some moments of clarity that helped better understand what makes the Filipino "National Fist" so much more than just a great athlete.
The True Tale of How the Fight Unfolded, and How Pacquaio Had to Fight Through Early Adversity to Gain Control.
First, you probably have read that Pacquiao dominated; that he won every round or almost every round; that he cut Margarito to shreds so much so that everyone, including Pacquiao, had legitimate concerns about Margarito’s health and whether the fight should continue the later rounds.
That rendition of the fight is accurate up to a point, but it fails to capture the genuine peril that Pacquaio faced in the early rounds, the genuine threat that Margarito represented, and thus the challenge that Pacquiao overcame to prevail against Margarito, a fighter who was in the best shape of his life and weighed 165 to Pacquiao’s 148 on fight night, an advantage of not just 17 pounds but 12 percent of body weight, a Goliath to Pacquiao’s David and a disgraced Mexican warrior on an epic quest for redemption. Could Margarito have been more prepared or more motivated? I don’t see how. That’s what Pacquiao was up against.
Think it was easy for Pacquiao? As the fight began, Emmanuel Steward, hall of fame trainer and normally shrewd commentator for HBO said: "I saw the size difference. It’s a big factor right now. I saw he’s not used to punching at a man as big as this one who seems to be absorbing his blows pretty easily."
Then there was Margarito’s jab, a new weapon, that was touching Pacquiao up in the first round. Steward: "What I’m surprised about is Margarito’s jab, which is a very good move, and that seems at this stage to be the most dominant punch in the fight."
A few moments later, with a minute to go in the first round, Steward said of Pacquiao: "He may have a problem tonight, the physical size seems to be a big factor." By the time the first round ended Pacquiao had thrown enough punches to win the round, but just barely, and the sense was that he could be in trouble, that he finally might have bitten off more than he could chew. The jab was a problem, the size difference was a problem, and Margarito, a notoriously slow starter, might get stronger as the fight wore on.
In the early part of the second round Max Kellerman, another astute boxing analyst and commentator, had this to say: "Margarito has landed not only some shots but a head butt followed by a right hand, these are hard shots from a big man."
This prompted Steward to repeat: "The size is being a big factor as I see it right here." Then, after Pacquiao mounted a flurry that didn’t seem to hurt Margarito, Jim Lampley said: "The loss of power from punching up could be a factor in the fight", meaning that Margarito’s height advantage was causing Pacquiao to punch skyward and this was taking power out of the punches. Then with 10 seconds to go in round 2, Steward said: "Looking at the eyes, Pacquiao is much more uncomfortable than Margarito is at this stage even though he may be winning the fight." Lampley: "Brand new experience for Pacquiao."
Easy Fight?
That was how it felt after the first two rounds. But as he has so often in the past, Pacquiao, guided by the man he calls his "master" Freddie Roach – gradually began to solve the Margarito puzzle and found ways to use his astonishing hand speed, footwork, head movement, and ring savvy to start slicing his opponent, most notably opening a cut under Margarito’s right eye that almost immediately began to swell, causing the eye to almost close. [Margarito went straight to the hospital after the fight and it was determined orbital bone was broken.]
From there, Manny gained the upper hand but even after the cut had begun a problem, there were some nerve wracking moments, notably in the 6th round when Margarito got Pacquiao against the ropes and hit him with a huge left to the liver that buckled Pacquiao’s knees. Later, and more than once, he rocked Manny with uppercuts, most notably one in the 8th round that clearly hurt.
Yet in spite of being hurt more than once, Pacquiao dominated; he repeatedly landed power punches that soon had Margarto’s entire face swollen and bleeding and yet Margarito, to his credit as a warrior if not a sensible human, refused to go down and refused to stop.
By the 10th round there was ample reason to stop the fight, and Pacquiao glanced at the referee more than once as if to ask, "Shouldn’t you end this?", and his look was one of concern, not bravado and dismissiveness.
Steward at that point commented that while the referee had every reason to stop the fight, he wouldn’t because Margarito was still demonstrating his grit by throwing punches even though he could hardly see and his punches no longer had snap or power to them. To which Kellerman said, rightly: "It’s not about his eyes, it’s about his brain. How many power punches flush to the head can a man take?"
And indeed, by the end, the compu-box figures that Pacquiao had landed a disturbing 401 power punches to Margarito’s head, and who knows when the damage from that kind of beating will present itself?
Margarito on his stool between the 11th and 12th rounds looked more like Rocky Balboa in the original "Rocky" than any real fight most of us have ever seen, both eyes almost swollen shut, punch drunk, but demanding that he be allowed to continue, to finish it.
All that was missing was Margarito yelling "cut me" to make it a complete reprise of Hollywood’s epic and amped up vision of the outclassed warrior willing to risk everything to go the distance.
There he was, insisting through his mangled features that he wanted to fight one more round, to make it to the end, and his corner let him do it, a decision that honored Margarito’s epic courage but placed him in epic danger. And then it was the 12th round, with Margarito out on his feet and all but defenseless, game but beaten. There was every reason to believe that Pacquiao, hungry for the KO that would put the exclamation point on his performance, would swarm Margarito and either drop him at last, or mount a swarming, blistering final assault that would leave the referee with no choice but to stop it. But that didn’t happen.
Grace In The 12th Round
The first sign that something special was about to happen came during the traditional touching of gloves before the last round. Pacquiao touched them up, but went a step further, giving a deep nod to Margarito, a salute, and then, as if to make sure the salute was understood, he touched his right glove one more time to Margarito’s, stepped back, crossed himself, and began to "fight", but not quite.
For the first 30 seconds of the round Pacquiao, who had been throwing power punches at a rate of one every five seconds of the entire fight, threw only two tentative punches that wouldn’t have hurt a fly, circling Margarito instead of engaging with him.
Pacquiao threw his third punch, an inconsequential jab, 40 seconds into the round. Thus, three inconsequential punches 1/4 of the way through the final round, when by simple "average" punch count Pacquiao would by then have normally thrown at least 25 punches.
Something was up. At 45 seconds into the round, Lampley was the first commentator to realize what was happening and commented on it: "Max, I honestly wonder whether Pacquiao has no more stomach for the punishment. He doesn’t seem eager to hit Margarito anymore." Kellerman: "It looks like he’s carrying Margarito right now." Steward: "It’s much like Joe Calzaghe did…" Lampley: "Some of the greatest fighters in history have done this.
There is no question Pacquiao is pulling his punches now. He is not following through and committing the way he does……it’s a nod to Margarito’s guts and courage…and Pacquaio is going to let him finish the fight." And then Lampley capped it off, no doubt with some hyperbole. But then Pacquiao invites, and deserves, hyperbole: "This is not Manny Pacquiao the fighter, this is Manny Pacquiao the Congressman, Manny Pacquiao the cultural icon, Manny Pacquiao the citizen of the world. That’s the man who’s letting Margarito finish." (to be continued next issue) /MP
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