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Appreciating this version of Manny Pacquiao

It was June 26, 1997. Manny Pacquiao was scheduled to fight Chockchai 3K Battery for the OPBF flyweight title. I patiently waited for that day to come because I wanted to see if Pacquiao was for real. I was in fourth grade then and the fight was airing past my curfew but my parents allowed me to watch anyway because they knew I was a Pacquiao fan.

What I remember most in that fight is the agitated feeling of waiting for a knockout. I somehow felt that unless Pacquiao knocks the tough Thai out, he’d lose a decision. Quinito Henson, the commentator for that fight, painted 3K Battery as a rough and experienced boxer while Pacquiao was a frail, young flyweight.

Pacquiao sported a flat top hair cut with longs bangs for that fight. His hair would flail every single time 3K Battery touched him up. But the moment came for Pacquiao in the fifth round as he hurt the Thai with his vaunted straight left.

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Seventeen years after, I watched Pacquiao fight Bradley having the opposite feeling. Unless Bradley somehow knocks Pacquiao out, I was sure that the Pacman was going to win.

A Pacquiao with no fire and no killer instinct, according to Bradley, was more than enough to make one of the best welterweights in the game abandon his game plan. Bradley knew he could not outbox Pacquiao so he went into the fight wanting a knockout.



The result? He turned into a wild-swinging brawler for the first time in his career. Bradley was tired after the fourth round. He was done after that.

Some people called the fight boring but before you do the same, think about what Pacquiao just accomplished. Bradley is on the prime of his career. He is a stylistic nightmare for Pacquiao. He may be faster than Pacquiao which negated one of the Filipino’s best assets. Yet Pacquiao made Bradley look like he did not belong in the same ring with him.

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After the fateful meeting between Pacquiao and his trainer Freddie Roach, his transformation from a one-handed slugger to an all-around fighter has been nothing less than astonishing.

Pacquiao has proven time and again that he is a student of the game. Not just in the ring but also outside it. He knows that sluggers usually don’t end their careers on a good note, boxers do. That’s why he’s trying to be more of a boxer now.

It’s extends his career as he no longer has to take a lot of punishment. It allows him to fight and earn more while making sure he’ll retire free from ailments caused by taking too many blows to the head.

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Mike Tyson. Ricardo Mayorga. Johnny Tapia. Edwin Valero. All those killers in the ring lived vicarious lives. All of them had their dark places. They went there every time they stepped into the ring, which allowed them to fight like crazed animals.

For the longest time, Manny Pacquiao was like that too.

You have to be somewhat crazy to fight the way Pacquiao did in the span from Oscar de la Hoya to Antonio Margarito. Only a crazy fighter would take a fight against De La Hoya. Only a crazy man will stand in front of Miguel Cotto and take the power punching Puerto Rican’s body blows willingly. Only a crazy fighter will jump to the super welterweight division and weigh even below the welterweight limit.



Pacquiao is not that fighter anymore. He took all those risks to entertain the fans. He has built his legacy and has done his job well. His highlights and his list of victims would stand against the best boxers in history.

Pacquiao is already looking at life outside boxing. Back then, boxing was his life. His family, his values, everything took the back seat to boxing. After he almost lost it all after the third fight with Juan Manuel Marquez, the boxer changed his outlook in life.

He still wants to win fights and to test his skill against the world’s best. But now he fights thinking of his safety too; a precious lesson he learned against Marquez in their last fight.

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In his past few fights, boxing writers, his opponents, and his detractors have maligned Pacquiao’s inability to score knockouts. He has not stopped anyone in five years. On the flipside, you won’t hear anyone complain about Mayweather’s lack of stoppages. Sure, they have very different styles but if Mayweather is celebrated for his boxing skill without finishing off opponents, shouldn’t we give Pacquiao the same respect? Instead of harping on his lack of knockout victims, shouldn’t we instead spend our time marveling at his journey from being a brawler to being a technically sound fighter?

We are all watching Manny Pacquiao’s victory lap. Sure, the Pacman is no longer in his peak. Sure, he no longer is the pedal to the metal dynamo we’ve come to love. But we have to realize that we are watching a once-in-a-generation talent here. Even without the knockouts, even without the bloody fights, we should all enjoy Pacquiao’s last few fights in the ring. Because we’ll all miss him when he’s done.