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By Eddie G. Alinea, Contributor
THE entire nation comes to a standstill, again,
Sunday when its favorite son Manny “PacMan” Pacquiao challenges
Mexican Juan Manuel Marquez for the latter’s World Boxing Council
super featherweight championship at the posh Mandalay Bay Resort and
Casino in Las Vegas, Nevada.
Also at stake in the 12-round classic rematch of
their undecided first match four years ago is the vacant Ring
magazine super featherweight diadem and the distinction of becoming
the undisputed best 130-pound fighter in the world.
A win for the 29-year-old Pacquiao, likewise,
will earn him the reputation as the first Filipino and Asian, for
that matter, to win a world crown in three different divisions. His
fourth, counting his international title unrecognized by any of the
alphabet-oriented world boxing bodies.
Should he succeed, the native of General Santos
City south of Mindanao will join Thomas Hearns, Sugar Rey Leonard,
Roberto Duran, Pernell Whitaker, Oscar De La Hoya, Roy Jones, Floyd
Mayweather Jr. and Leo Gamez, the only eight men so far to have
triumph in four weight classes.
Both Marquez, who tipped the scale at the
required limit 130-pound during the official weigh-in Friday
(Saturday in Manila), and Pacquiao, who came in one pound lighter at
129, expressed readiness for the all-important fight of their
respective careers and to settle something they failed to settle
last May 8, 2004.
Both vowed to dedicate the fight for their
country and their people. For Pacquiao to reassert his reputation as
the “Mexican Assassin” after beating a host of fighters from
that country, including legends Erik Morales and Marco Antonio
Barrera, and Marquez avenging those losses.
Pacquiao, though, is an overwhelming 2-to-1
favorite to run the tables on Marquez and bring home all the marbles
for his countrymen to cherish as his gift to them in celebration of
the 487th anniversary of the discovery of the Philippines.
On March 16, 1521, a Portuguese by the name of
Ferdinand Magellan discovered the Philippines when he landed in
the Island of Mactan, where he was eventually killed by Lapu Lapu.
“Gaya po ng dati, iniaalay ko para sa bansa at
sa mga kababayan natin ang labang ito,” Pacquiao declared in a
brief overseas telephone interview on the eve of the fight.
“Matagal akong nagtiis at nagpakahirap na mag-ensayo at hindi ko
pababayaang masayang ang lahat ng sakripisyo ko para matalo lamang.”
“Handang-handa na po ako. Ang hiling ko lang
pos a mga kababayana natin ay idalangin na manalo ako at huwag
magtamao ng anumang pinsala,” he said.
Marquez, on the other hand, has repeatedly
reiterated that he won’t let the title slip from his hands,
especially because he is now the only standing Mexican tasked to
defend the honor of his country and people.
That bout four years ago resulted in a split
draw with Pacquiao, now with 45-3-2 win-loss-draw record dropping
the then world featherweight champ three times in the opening round
and Marquez, 48-3-1, 35 KOs, bouncing back in the next rounds and
nearly won.
The Marquez-Pacquiao II dubbed the “Unfinished
Business”, features a pleasing blend of styles with the Filipino
challenger known as a swarming, quick-fisted warrior and Marquez,
the beautifully coordinated counter-puncher.
In that stretch of four years, both had
metamorphosed to become fighters different from the ones the world
saw the first time around. While in that first bout Pacquiao was a
one-arm bandit that relied on the poser of his left hand, trainer
Freddie Roach has developed him into a two-fisted attacker that
possessed an equally devastating right hand.
While Marquez was a safety-first
defenses-oriented stylist then, he appeared to have learned to mix
it up while not forgetting his defensive stance in his recent
fights.
Despite the changes Roach and Marquez’s
trainer Ignacio Beristain had injected to their respective wards,
Pacquiao looks to still have the edge in speed, power and the
intangibles.
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