Against his biggest opponent yet, in his eighth weight division, Pacquiao did what Pacquiao always does: he dipped and danced and fired southpaw, he ducked and spun and landed a tornado of combinations. When it ended, Pacquiao had earned his 13th straight victory and the World Boxing Council’s vacant 154-pound title, in a bloodbath, by unanimous decision.
“I can’t believe I beat somebody this big and this strong,” Pacquiao said.
With each round, Margarito’s face worsened, as if Pacquiao was painting a brutal boxing masterpiece. It went like this: seventh round, left eye closed; eighth round, bleeding from nose; ninth round, left cheek bruised; 10th round, fight nearly stopped.
In the 11th round, Pacquiao glanced at the referee, almost pleading for a stoppage. In the 12th, he took mercy, punching rarely, allowing Margarito to finish on his feet, after which he was taken to the hospital.
Immediately, talk turned toward the usual subject, toward Floyd Mayweather Jr. and a potential clash between boxing’s undisputed two best fighters. Pacquiao reiterated what he said throughout the past two months, that he does not need to battle Mayweather but wants to despite two failed rounds of negotiations.
“If the fight happens, it happens,” Pacquiao said. “If not, I’m satisfied with my career.”
Before the main event here, strategic shenanigans erupted in the locker rooms. Margarito’s trainer, Robert Garcia, successfully forced a second wrapping of Pacquiao’s hands. Meanwhile Pacquiao’s trainer, Freddie Roach, accused Margarito of taking a banned substance — breathless debate labeled said substance Ephedra, ephedrine, Hydroxycut, or Splenda, but never produced a definitive answer — and Roach unsuccessfully lobbied for a prefight drug test.
The surreal atmosphere continued from there. The singer Nelly performed, as if plucked straight from a Super Bowl halftime show. Pacquiao bound into the ring with that grand grin spread wide, as “You’re the best,” blared from the stadium’s ample supply of speakers, before, as is his custom, he knelt and prayed. Only in Texas.
From the outset, Margarito towered over Pacquiao, but the smaller man attacked from all angles, delivering a typical array of stinging blows. Pacquiao kept charging, kept throwing, kept landing, including a left hand that staggered Margarito in the third.
In the fourth round, Pacquiao opened a welt underneath Margarito’s right eye, and the 41,734 assembled here rose to their collective feet, smelling knockout. Pacquiao darted around the slower Margarito, who often looked in slow motion.
Both Margarito and Garcia repeatedly insisted they never considered stopping the fight early, a strategy that Roach maintained would “ruin” Margarito’s career. Garcia called Margarito a warrior, but added, about Pacquiao: “He’s the best fighter in the world. He’s just too fast.”
In the weeks before the fight, it seemed Pacquiao appeared everywhere but inside a boxing ring. There was Pacquiao on “60 Minutes,” following President Barack Obama. There was Pacquiao on “Jimmy Kimmel Live,” singing with Will Ferrell. There was Pacquiao in Las Vegas, stumping for Senator Harry Reid.
This worried Roach, but not to the extent to which those distractions were portrayed. Still, Roach made a point of sitting beside Pacquiao for 30 minutes during their flight from the Philippines to Los Angeles. There, Roach said he expressed his concerns to Pacquiao, who in turn told Roach he felt sluggish trying to maintain a weight of 150 pounds. Drop back down, Roach told him.
“We’re all spoiled,” Roach said over breakfast Thursday morning. “Usually, Manny Pacquiao gets ready for a fight in three weeks. This time, it took him eight. But he’s ready. He’ll knock him out.”
Against Margarito, Pacquiao eyed his somewhat disputed eighth championship in eight different weight divisions, regardless an unprecedented upward swing of nearly 50 pounds. In dispute were three of those fights, a linear championship in 2003 against Marco Antonio Barrera and two bouts — against Miguel Cotto and Margarito — that included catch weights below the maximum allowed in those divisions.
Against Pacquiao, Margarito sought redemption, or as much redemption as a fighter caught in 2009 with loaded knuckle pads can muster. Margarito claimed no knowledge of the illegal inserts, but two lackluster contests post-scandal only provided ammunition to those who pointed to the lack of damage Margarito had inflicted.
That Margarito showed little remorse, or that a video surfaced earlier in the week of him mocking Roach’s symptoms from Parkinson’s Disease, only further sullied his reputation. At Friday’s weigh-in, fans chanted “Cheater! Cheater!” But he believed, firmly, resolutely, defeating Pacquiao would change all that.
Pacquiao towed a far more distinguished pedigree into the ring, but Margarito enjoyed advantages in weight (17 pounds), height (4.5 inches) and reach (6.5 inches). Margarito also promised the action lacking in Pacquiao’s latest victory, here last March against Joshua Clottey. In contrast, Margarito possessed a strong chin and left uppercut, and he stalked opponents, relentless in moving forward, in throwing body shots, owner of a 60 percent knockout ratio.
Once in Los Angeles, Pacquiao went back to his normal weight. He stopped eating eggs in the middle of the night, stopped consuming 7,000 calories each day. Speed, Roach predicted, would top size. When that speed returned, so did the smile stretched wide across Pacquiao’s face.
Perhaps Pacquiao perfected his fight formula at his new favorite venue, Cowboys Stadium. In the last eight months, he won more here than the Cowboys, while headlining two fights that sold nearly 100,000 seats.
With Pacquiao’s growing political ambitions — the current Congressman truly believes one day he will become president — even Roach wonders how much longer Pacquiao will fight. Perhaps three bouts. Maybe four. But someday soon, Pacquiao will permanently trade boxing for politics, and if a fight against Mayweather again fails to materialize, the list of challengers seems thin, at best.
Pacquiao proved that Saturday, as boxing’s favorite Congressman ran circles around Margarito and made history, once again.
Source: nytimes.com
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