October 7, 2007 (Pacific Standard Time)
The much-awaited rematch between world featherweight icons Manny “Pacman”
Pacquiao and Marco Antonio “the baby-faced assassin” Barrera in Mandala Bay, Las Vegas, USA has just been concluded, and as has been anticipated, the Pacman emerged to win after 12 rounds of action.
During the early pre-fight surveys, the Pacman was the undisputed favorite because of his youth, power, speed and courage to take on anyone in the boxing ring. The Pacman had literally wiped out his last 3 opponents before this fight, namely Larius Marquez and Solis, all Mexicans.
Barrera on the other hand, trained harder in order to redeem his 11th round TKO loss to the Pacman some months back. This and the loss of the other Mexicans in the hands of the Pacman is the fuel that fires him up to aspire vengeance against the Filipino boxing icon.
Many boxing analysts predicted a Pacquiao victory. A majority even predicted that the match would end within the distance of 6 rounds.
But Barrera could not be taken lightly as this fight will be his gateway to the fold of retirement. He must leave some kind of signature as this will be his last fight.
Come fight night, both boxers looked prepared and in good condition. The Pacman looked at par with Barrera in size unlike the previous fight where Barrera was a bit bigger than him.
Both fighters danced in the ring round after round with a few hits here and there as Pacquiao closed in on Barrera in attempt to corner the latter. But Barrera, being the intelligent veteran fighter that he is, is not easy to give Pacquiao what he wanted, he knew that Pacquiao could take him out of the ring in just one punch. Giving Pacquiao the “catch me if you can”fighting style in order not to get entangled with the thundering blows of the Pacman Barrera kept on back-pedaling all throughout the fight, leaving a few unimpressive counterpunches every now and then which didn’t even bother the Pacman. Despite being the defending champion , Pacquiao was the aggressor in the entirety of the fight.
Barrera almost went down in the 11th round when Pacquiao caught him with a vicious left hook.
Barrera is a good boxer and counter puncher with tremendous hand speed. He executes his jabs and hooks perfectly. But these are not enough to counter the power that Pacquiao is gifted with. Barrera is also lacking in lateral footwork that could have disrupted Pacquiao’s strategy. Pacquiao literally dominated 10 of the 12 rounds they had in the ring. Only rounds 2 and 3 belonged to Barrera.
The fight was good in the sense that no fighter was hurt in the course of the duel, but looking at the audience, they were not as fulfilled, not as thrilled and not as excited as the first encounter because the bout looked more of a dance showdown than a boxing competition. But in fairness, we can’t blame the fighters for being cautious, after all, it’s their lives which are put at stake.
Pacquiao undoubtedly won the fight by a sweep. Congratulations to all Filipinos. They are all relatives of the Pacman now …