By DAVID CASUCO
photocredits: joe cobilla
LAS VEGAS — The Filipinos, with their leather jackets and windbreakers on, flooded the Strip and made Saturday night another “Pacman Fever” in the Sin City.
The fun started early evening with their hero, their idol, their singular source of pride and joy — Manny Pacquiao — coming off with another stellar performance inside the ring at the MGM Grand Garden Arena. It ended well past midnight with a post victory blast at the Mandalay Bay, where the Pacman himself was the headliner in a mini-concert that commanded $40-admission ticket.
Understandably, the shindig was not as exp losive as Pacquiao’s demolition job on Miguel Cotto (34-2, 27KOs) earlier, but heck, the Pinoys had to do any which way to cap the celebration with flourish. And while a lot of them sustained cracked lips from the biting cold and dry desert wind of Nevada, all of them would swear it was well worth it.
Before Pacquiao and Cotto stepped inside the ring, there was a collective apprehension from among Fil-Am journalists covering the event about history repeating itself. Their fear stemmed from the fact that it was another Puerto Rican, Carlos Ortiz, who put an end to the winning ways of the great Flash Elorde in the 60s.
Their dreadful thoughts grew in the first round when Cotto got the upper hand, hit more power punches, and took the round all across the scoresheets of the three judges. However, only that, and Round 6, proved to be his shining moment as the Pacman, after sizing him up, quickly went to work, dropping him in the 3rd and fourth and gobbled him up black and blue the rest of the way. Cotto was backpedalling in the last three rounds, Referee Kenny Bayless had to stop the punishment, 55 seconds into the12th round.
“I didn’t know from where the punches are coming,” said Cotto, who picked up a $7 million payoff, said afterwards. “He is one of the best boxers I ever fought.”
Cotto didn’t make it to the media center for the post-fight reckoning because he was brought to an area hospital for some precautionary medical care.
It was the ever self-effacing and quick-smiling Pacquiao who showed up with a white bandage across his ears. His thoughts on a possible clash with Floyd Mayweather was the same: “My duty as a boxer is to train and prepare for the fight. It is up to my promoter to determine whom I will fight.”
With the victory, Pacman improved his record to 50-3-2 (win-loss-draw), 38 KOs. He collected $13 million prize money for the splendid job, quite a lot compared to the $6/day average income of most Pinoy laborers back home.
“We may just as well call the MGM Garden Arena Manny Pacquiao playground,” said Sabas Gaviola of the Nevada Examiner. “Why, indeed, it is where the Pacman gobbles up his adversaries on the way to picking up megabuck purses.”
Said Top Rank’s top guy Bob Arum: “I go on record this time, Manny is the greatest fighter of all time. He has singlehandedly put boxing back on its high perch. I have never seen a great fighter like him in a long time,”
At the media center earlier, mainstream journalists were wondering just how good a singer Manny is. They were thinking it would just be another karaoke thing. But when they were told that the Pacman was to do an eight-song repertoire with a live band, there were snickers all around.
“Does he look like a rock star? And with all that thick bandage around his ears? I don’t think so,” the guy standing next to me exclaimed in disbelief.
“Better believe it man, the Filipinos did invent the karaoke,” I told him, trying to sustain a light repartee.
Then the clamor: “Hey, Manny, give us a sampling of what you’re gonna do at Mandalay Bay,” the sportswriters insisted.
“Sometimes when we touch, the honesty’s too much. I have to close my eyes and hide...” went Manny parroting Dan Hill’s 1977 pop hit “Sometimes When We Touch.” And with that note he headed for nearby Mandalay Bay with a bunch of his questionable and obnoxious Pinoy gofers on his trail.
But the question every well meaning sportswriter was asking, “Will there be a Pacquiao-Mayweather ring confrontation?”
The boxing zealots and diehards think it will happen because that is the logical match that the boxing world wants right now. It has all the makings of a superfight that will rake in millions of boxing revenues never before seen in the sport. They are saying whatever animosity between Top Rank’s Bob Arum and Mayweather have will eventually dissipate by the high potency of the green bucks.
Said Freddie Roach: “If he (Floyd) will ask for a 65-45 cut he is not gonna get it.”The cynics, however, have misgivings saying Floyd Mayweather Jr. (40--0, 25 KOs) will definitely take a hard line stance and will not settle for a compromise on the money grab. And then, there is the issue of the catchweight. How light Floyd is willing to go down, and how heavy Manny is gonna go up.
At the post fight briefing, HBO’s Ross Greenberg told Arum that Golden Boy’s Richard Schaefer “will call him on Monday” to start the Pacquiao-Mayweather negotiations. “The money we are talking here is astronomical. We are all morons not to let this (fight) happen,” he said.
Pacquiao vs. Mayweather: Looks quite simple enough on
paper, but the truth is, it is very complicated. The way it is now, the issue of whether the fight will happen or not depends on how the big bucks, bloated egos, and business smarts will play out. (David Casuco was a former sportswriter for the Times Journal in Manila and currently the Editor-in-Chief of the California Examiner, the longest-running Fil-Am newspaper in Southern California)
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