Garcia leaves himself open to Sulaiman’s counterpunch
Former IBF world super featherweight champion Robert Garcia left himself wide open when he attempted to stand and trade punches with Diego "Chico" Corrales in their title fight at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas on October 23, 1999 and was dropped three times en route to a 7th round TKO loss.
Perhaps not realizing the consequences of his comments on the widely condemned split decision victory of Timothy "Desert Storm" Bradley over "Fighter of the Decade" and boxing icon Manny Pacquiao, Garcia was immediately nailed by a vicious counter-punch by none other than World Boxing Council president Don Jose Sulaiman who castigated Garcia for his claims that the result was "good for everybody."
While talking about how WBO super bantamweight champion and pound for pound No. 4 Nonito "The Filipino Flash" Donaire was doing in training for his July 7 unification title fight against IBF champion Jeffrey Mathebula of South Africa, we asked Garcia what he thought about the decision in the Pacquiao-Bradley fight last June 9 which he watched at ringside.
Garcia responded in what we must consider a brutally frank manner. The trainer of Donaire, his undefeated younger brother Mikey Garcia and former world champion Brandon "Bam Bam" Rios among others, said "it was a great fight, a very exciting fight and it's good because controversy will make you either watch the fight again, it sells a lot, it's good for promotion, good for the fighters, good for everybody."
Garcia conceded that he believes Pacquiao won but that a rematch "gets us a chance to see another great fight." In Garcia's eyes Timothy Bradley "fights like a warrior" although he remarked. "I think Pacquiao looked really good and a lot better than his previous fights (vs Shane Mosley and Juan Manuel Marquez.). He was in top shape and it was just a great fight."
Sulaiman's reaction was immediate. The WBC president who has long admired Pacquiao since he won his first world title which was the WBC flyweight crown with a spectacular 8thround knockout of Thai hero Chatchai Sasakul on December 3, 1998 angrily asked "how could you condone injustice and tarnish the credibility of boxing for money?"
Sulaiman went on, "Manny Pacquiao deserved justice. You cannot treat a hero and boxing immortal like him by accepting injustice for money and a false attraction."
The WBC president had some unsolicited advice for Manny telling him "don't fight Bradley again as it would be like accepting that he (Bradley) won and because negative critics might think that the first fight was fixed in order to have a rematch which was not the case."
Top Rank promoter Bob Arum who handles both fighters said a rematch is out of the question because the fight was not even close. Following the generally accepted principle that for a rematch to make sense, the previous fight should have been close. And this is where Mexican legend Juan Manuel Marquez fits in nicely.
Pacquiao and Marquez engaged each other in three, action-packed ring classics, all three marked by varying degrees of controversy. Pacquiao dropped Marquez three times in the opening round of their first fight but Marquez counter-punched his way to salvage a draw aided by judge Burt Clements who admitted in a post-fight interview that he had made a mistake by scoring the first round 10-7 when he should have, like the two other judges scored it 10-6 which would have given Pacquiao the win.
Editor's note: The blogger's views do not represent Yahoo! Southeast Asia's position on the topic or issue being discussed in this post.
