Pacquiao: Mitigating danger

Manny Pacquiao is the new WBA world welterweight champion, in the same workmanlike, humble excellent manner. He broke spirit with two knockdowns before a love-tap finished the Argentinian in the seventh round. This is the first time since meeting Miguel Cotto in 2009 that the fighting senator has knocked out an opponent. There were, in truth, many firsts in the card, but that’s how Pacquiao rolls. This was borne out by the panel of experts that analyzed the fight on DZMM.

“He didn’t fight like a young man,” says radio commentator and boxing analyst Dennis Principe. “After a knockdown, a younger fighter would have abandoned the game plan and gone all out for the knockout. Not Manny. He knew the time would come.”

It was Pacquiao’s work rate that would grind the former champion into dust. The Filipino kept coming and coming, using both his feared left and the now equally dangerous right with impunity. Matthysse, who felt a sense of doom stemming from traumatic 10th-round loss to Viktor Postol in 2015, simply started to quit.

“What the foreign sportswriters are saying online is that Pacquiao came to fight,” confirms ABS-CBN’s head of digital media Mico Halili. “He stayed in front of Matthysse and kept the pressure on, and Matthysse started to collapse.”

“Pacquiao threw about a hundred more power punches than Matthysse,” confirmed Edson Guido, head of analytics for ABS-CBN Integrated News and Current Affairs. “The past losses, he has thrown less punches than his opponents, and they’ve landed more.”

What was critical was the choice of opponent. Matthysse owned the “regular” world title, because the WBA has a peculiar wrinkle called a “super champion”. Any champion who has made four successive, successful title defenses gets promoted to super champion, even if he’s still fighting. More belts, more sanctioning fees. Kit Thurman owns the WBA welterweight super crown. So far, his name has not come up in any immediate discussions to fight Pacquiao. Then again, a lot of younger fighters who have criticized Pacquiao or called him out, may not be so eager to get into the ring with him now.

What’s next for Pacquiao? The biggest questions are who, when and where. Vasili Lomachengko would be an interesting fighter, very active, a little smaller and coming off an injury. He would make an intriguing challenger. Pacquiao has mentioned Amir Khan and Terrence Crawford, although the latter would be more of a gamble, as he is younger and bigger. And the fight may likely happen next year, as Pacquiao the promoter has to make all the deals happen first.

It was the first time Pacquiao has had two heads of state at ringside. President Rodrigo Duterte enjoyed himself immensely, according to spokesman Harry Roque. Both felt the unequalled intensity of four world title fights in one card.

“Let us treasure these moments, while Manny Pacquiao is still fighting,” reminds boxing analyst Atty. Ed Tolentino. “We are all fortunate to be live witnesses to his greatness.”

Until the next one.