By Bong Pedalino
It was ironic that the Manny Pacquiao-Joshua Clottey match was billed “The Event” when it turned out a non-event.
Let us face this: the Pacman has been looked up to, admired, and respected worldwide because of his ability to fight like crazy, and any paying viewer expects no less than that.
For Team Pacquaio, this high level of standard can be assured, for even if he losses, he will loss fighting a good fight, blood and sweat oozing from his battle-scarred face, an image of spartan endurance right to the very end, even a defeating end.
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But Team Pacquiao must understand, and realize, that much of the expectation in any Pacquiao fight was also to see this rags-to-riches man demolish the enemy in no less a dramatic fashion than a knockout, or at the very least, a knockdown.
This was the reason Pacquiao now is a hot potato in the boxing world, where promoters leave no stone unturned just to have him in.
This was the rationale why only Pacquiao can assemble millions of warm bodies, and millions more glued to their television sets, because he exudes humble confidence, and can set the stage for an exciting bout in a serious business as a contest of brains and brawl.
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Coach Freddie Roach was right, though, when he said it was hard to engage a fighter who was in “survival mode,” a phrase that will now be a part of boxing vocabulary.
In the same breath, that was also a challenge: how to pummel into submission a boxer who willingly submits himself to become a punching bag, literally.
Of course, a knockdown cannot be squeezed just like that by a magic wand; it has to be built-up, an opening must be created, a lot of combinations must be employed simultaneously with lightning speed and classical footwork.