Manny Pacquiao Is The Best

8:47 AM // 2 comments // Ian Purugganan // Category: Margarito , Pacquiao //

The size disparity was obvious with just one look at Manny Pacquiao and Antonio Margarito.

But on this cool Saturday night, it was the boxing wonder from the Philippines who stood tall.

Behind a blinding speed and thundering punches, Pacquiao, the world’s top pound-for-pound fighter, reduced the bigger but slow Margarito to a bloody pulp, carving out a lopsided 12-round unanimous decision and winning the World Boxing Council (WBC) junior middleweight championship for his record eighth world title.

Peppering his tough, 5-foot-11 Mexican opponent with power punches left and right, Pacquiao had no trouble pulling off this one, dominating Margarito from the opening bell onwards and dealing him the worst loss of his tarnished career before an electrified crowd of 41,734 at the elegant Cowboys Stadium here.

So overriding the victory was, that Margarito, his face a bloody mess after the fight, only won a total of three rounds on all the judges’ scorecards that read 120-108 (Laurence Cole), 118-110 (Glen Crocker) and 119-110 (Oren Shellenberger).

“I don’t think Manny lost a single round,” stressed trainer Freddie Roach in the post-fight conference. “I wish we had knocked him out. He’s a very tough guy. I was surprised how tough he was.”

Pacquiao, the fighting congressman from the province of Sarangani who now has won world titles as a flyweight super-bantamweight, featherweight, super-featherweight, lightweight, junior welterweight and welterweight, was just as stunned as his well-respected trainer.

“I’m really trying to knock him out, but I can’t believe that he’s tough,” said the 31-year-old Filipino southpaw, who also sported some bruises on his face and two swollen hand after turning his opponent into a virtual moving target. “He had a braveheart.”

Indeed, Margarito had.

Based on Compu box statistics, Pacquiao landed a total of 474 out of the total 1,069 punches thrown. Out of those punches landed, 411 were power shots or an average of 34 power punches per round, 21 more than the weight class average.

“Those numbers are absolutely out of sight,” Top Rank chairman Bob Arum, obviously astonished with the figures,” admitted later.

Pacquiao (52-3-2, 38 Kos) relentlessly strafed Margarito in the fourth, opening a nasty cut just under the right eye that eventually shut close as the fight wore on.

The former three-time world champion from Tijuana, Mexico, said the complexion of the highly-entertaining match changed from that point on.

“I was doing good until I was cut in the fourth. That’s when the problem started coming,” said Margarito, who skipped the post-fight conference as he had to be brought to the hospital for checkup.

Margarito had his best moments in the middle rounds, especially in the sixth when he staggered Pacquiao with a left to the side after briefly managing to pin the boxing sensation on the ropes.

“He hurt me in the ropes. He hurt me with that body shot,” the former pandesal vendor turned ring champion said of that incident.

But Pacquiao quickly turned the fight around with two more dominant showings in the 10th and 11th, respectively, landing 108 of a total 164 power punches thrown at Margarito (38-7, 27 Kos).

The barrage of punches left Margarito’s both eyes badly swelling that the Filipino at one time, asked referee Laurence Cole to stop the carnage.

“His face was a mess. My opponent looked bad,” said Pacquiao, who earned a cool $15 million, a figure that could likely increase to as much as $20 million when the pay-per-view sales come in next week.

“I wanted the referee to stop it. In the 12th round I was just looking to get thru the fight. I eased up on him. I told the referee, ‘Look at his eyes.’ I didn’t want to damage him permanently. That’s not what boxing is about,” added Pacquiao.

Margarito took home $3 million, his biggest paycheck ever despite coming off a one-year suspension after his license was revoked when he was caught guilty of loading his handwraps prior to a January 2009 title fight with Sugar Shane Mosley.

Although Cole thought many times during the course of the fight whether to stop it or not, the Mexican wouldn’t allow such thing to happen.

“He’s very fast. It’s hard to land a punch on that guy, but there’s no way I was going to quit in the fight. I am a Mexican and we fight to the end,” said Margarito.