THE date was Nov. 15, 2003 and the venue, the cavernous Alamadome in San Antonio, Texas. At stake was the lineal featherweight title.
Manny Pacquiao was one of the hottest prospects in the sport, having came out nowhere to beat the likes of Lehlohonolo Ledwaba and Jorge Eliecer Julio. At that time, Marco Antonio Barrera was already a Mexican boxing icon. He had just avenged his first loss to bitter rival Erik Morales and defeated A-list fighters Johnny Tapia and Kevin Kelley.
Pacquiao was the smaller man coming up in weight. There was no way he could stand up to the “Baby-faced Assassin.”
They were dead wrong.
This fight would prove to be the litmus test of Pacquiao’s legendary career. After this fight, he would go on to conquer new heights and tougher, bigger opponents, but this fight was the one that launched him into superstardom.
THE FIGHT. The first round was the quintessential feeling-out stanza as both men tried to size out the other and find their distance. But a Pacquiao slip after he landed a straight left hand was erroneously ruled a knockdown by referee Lawrence Cole.
Clearly concerned that he was already behind on the cards, the Pacman picked up the pace in the succeeding rounds. He threw 100 punches in the second and 85 in the third round. One of those was a straight left that netted him a clear knockdown in the third to even up the odds.
Turns out, Pacquiao would not need to enlist the aid of the judges, after all.
In the fourth, Barrera tried to regain control and put some measure of order into his rhythm which was in shambles, but in the last seconds of the round, Pacquiao strafed him with combinations again.
Pacquiao continued to pour it on in the fifth and sixth rounds, dictating a frenetic pace with Barrera landing sporadically.
In the seventh round, an accidental headbutt opened up a cut above Barrera’s eye and it all went downhill from there.
Pacquiao continued to flummox Barrera with multiple combinations, the likes of which Barrera never saw coming. His opponent was a whirling dervish, an untiring punching machine with no let-up.
In fairness to Barrera, his pride would not allow him to go down that easily and he fought back valiantly, but he was just simply outgunned.
In the 11th, Pacquiao scored another knockdown, not really from a single blow but more of the accumulation of punches as Barrera looked to be on the point of exhaustion.
In the dying seconds, with Barrera pinned along the ropes and Pacquiao raining blows, Barrera’s corner asked for the denouement of the fight.
They would fight againfour years later with Pacquiao affirming his superiority via unanimous decision.
LAST ROUNDS. Are on my Yakal buddies, Joy Denoga-Bautista and Au Casipe, who recently celebrated their birthdays. Cheers!