Barrera, Your Hall-Of-Famer, I Presume?

Filipino hotshot Manny ‘PacMan’ Pacquiao won two titles against Mexican legend Marco Antonio Barrera at noon yesterday, October 8 in Manila. That’s how good my countryman is. He’s not unbeatable, but when he’s good, he’s better. Photo by ydhsu

PacMan’s title win #1. They called the fight ‘Will To Win.’ He won the WBC International Super-Featherweight crown – and still Champion! – according to the fight emcee, a unanimous decision. I saw it on TV; I also saw our Vice-President Noli de Castro with PacMan after the fight, saying, ‘He is the true champion.’ A polite remark on Barrera’s dirty tactics. PacMan won, cleanly.

PacMan’s title win #2. He (should have) won the distinction of being the ‘#1 Pound-For-Pound Fighter In The World’ according to the promoters of the Pacquiao-Barrera fight, Oscar dela Hoya of Golden Boy Promotions and Bob Arum of Top Rank (Charles Raymond A Maxey, sunstar.com.ph).

A Philippine win. Chairman of the Games & Amusements Board Eric Buhain, Filipino, was designated by the WBC as Fight Supervisor. Another signal honor to the Filipinos (Salven Lagumbay, newsinfo.inquirer.net).

Judge Jerry Roth 118-109, Judge Glenn Trobridge 118-109, Tommy Schreck 115-112. Kevin Iole (Yahoo Sports) had it 119-108. PacMan smashed him in the 11th round. It’s a Unanimous decision! The best PacMan yet, the worst Barrera yet.

Barrera was going to win. ‘It’s been a long time since I dedicated myself for a fight like this,’ he said (news.bbc.co.uk). ‘The battle is on and I am going to leave the ring as boxing’s new #1 pound-for-pound fighter.’ PacMan was going to win. ‘I know he’s ready. I know he’s strong. I know he’s trained hard. But so did I. and I’m inspired by my millions of countrymen, who I carry into the ring with me.’

Why was Barrera fighting PacMan again when he lost so awfully last time, when he was knocked down in 2003?

It’s been a thorn in my side because he’s beaten so many Mexicans and obviously I want to put a stop to that. I want to put a stop to that. I mean, he’s beaten not only me. Other Mexicans have suffered, they’ve been defeated by him. So I want to put a stop to that.

‘Rare greatness is in Barrera’s grasp,’ Brent Matteo Alderson wrote the day before the fight (foxsports.com). Thinking, ‘maybe within my grasp’ – then he backed away. He knew he wasn’t up to it. Will To Won’t? No, Will To Can’t.

Age (33) is not an excuse for losing – Muhammad Ali was 32 when he flew like a butterfly and stung like a bee, knocking out champion George Foreman in ‘The Rumble In the Jungle’ in Kinshasa, Zaire in October 1974 – and the whole world applauded and shouted his name, agreeing with him: ‘I am the greatest!’ Greatness is not an announcement but an accomplishment.

The ‘Baby-Faced Assassin’ Barrera (sportinglife.com) looked more like a baby than an assassin this time.

Why was Barrera fighting against someone years younger than him? ‘I’m motivated because of the Latin people, because he has beaten so many Mexicans, not only me’ Barrera said before the fight (Jerry Magee, signonsandiego.com). Towards the end, the ‘Will To Win’ turned into the ‘Will To Wilt’ – from the start, it had been the ‘Will To Run.’ He never advanced; he was always retreating. He already had the money, why risk getting hurt?

The clue we have from Barrera’s own mouth (Alderson, cited): ‘‘I’ve given everything to this sport and I don’t want to get hurt at the end so I will try my best and if it doesn’t work out, I’ve had a great career.’

We watched the fight live and saw that Barrera was not a clean fighter. He swiped a head shot at PacMan at the 11th round while the referee was breaking up the clinch, after being ‘shaken by a thunderclap combination‘ (Recah Trinidad, newsinfo.inquirer.net), saving himself from a knockout. Your Hall-of-Famer, I presume?

Dan Rafael reports on the first Barrera-Pacquiao fight when Barrera was still champion, in 2003, about how PacMan’s trainer Freddie Roach ‘questioned the way Barrera’s hands were wrapped before the fight’ and the authorities agreed with him, and Barrera was made to follow the rules (sports.espn.com). For this fight, Roach informed the Nevada State Athletic Commission on Wednesday that he was concerned that Barrera would ‘wrap his hands with too much gauze and tape, creating an unfair power-punching advantage,’ that his camp would ‘apply a substance to the hand-wrap material that would harden like a cast when it becomes damp with sweat’ (Lance Pugmire, latimes.com).

PacMan has now beaten all the so-called Mexican greats, including Oscar Larios, Erik Morales, Emmanuel Lucero, Hector Velazquez, Jorge Solis (sportinglife.com). My hero!

Barrera had the nerve to say, after the fight, that PacMan didn’t knock him out and that, having lasted 12 rounds, he showed that he was ‘still good.’ Still good at being a bad boy. Last March, also in Mandalay Bay Events Center, Las Vegas, ‘Barrera wound up and delivered a right hand to Marquez’s head as Marquez was kneeling on the canvas’ (Jeff Haney, lasvegassun.com).

So, how was PacMan going to the fight? He had many distractions, including a fight with his wife. He began training with Roach one month late, and has had ‘critics doubting his focus in the past year‘ (Unsilent, deadspin.com). Roach put it nicely: ‘Manny is still learning.’

We watched the fight courtesy of Community Cable Vision Channel 8, free, no commercials. Right from Round 1, from the beginning, it was obvious that Marco Antonio Barrera’s Will To Win had become The Will to Wilt. He wasn’t a boxer anymore – he had become a runner.

So, who is PacMan going to fight next? Juan Manuel Marquez, Joan Guzman, David Diaz? ‘I’ll be happy whoever I fight,’ PacMan says (canadianpress.google.com). ‘I just think I’m an ordinary fighter, that I can fight a good fighter or the best fighter. I don’t think I’m the best.’ PacMan, you can be the best – but you have to put your heart to it. Always.

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