The Head Butt That Hastened Solis's Downfall
By Ed de la Vega, DDS
PhilBoxing.com
Tue, 17 Apr 2007
Canoga Park, CA -- Before the much-hyped Pacquiao-Solis “Blaze of Glory” at the Alamodome in San Antonio, Texas last Saturday, many pundits and common boxing fans predicted that Pacquiao will end his fight with Solis in the early third of the 12 round fight.
But, the Pacman had some other plans.
Pacquiao revealed to this writer and a few of his privileged friends who were inside his private bedroom in his suite at the Radisson Hotel after the fight that he wanted to prolong the fight and entertain his fans and supporters just a wee bit longer. He was so confident of his victory that he felt it would be an extra treat for everyone if the fight lasted longer much like the Larios fight at Araneta Coliseum.
Such is Pacquiao. Even faced with an opponent like Solis who parades an undefeated record and could be potentially dangerous, his thoughts are still about entertaining his fans and supporters. Indeed, the trappings of an emerging politician!
But, Freddie Roach had better ideas and reportedly told Pacquiao to quit playing and finish off Solis. Roach’s concern of course was that anything can happen in the fight particularly with Pacquiao facing a very hungry Solis who is out to make a name for himself.
Then in the 6th round, Roach’s concern came to being. Pacquiao suffered an accidental head butt from Solis that opened a nasty cut above his left eyebrow.
Solis (right) butts Pacquiao's left eye with his head that hastens Solis's own downfall. Photo by Dr. Ed de la Vega.
When the head butt occurred, it dramatically changed Pacquiao’s personal agenda. What appeared to be a relatively easy fight has rapidly deteriorated to something that is so urgent. The fight must simply end!
The cut appeared to have enraged Pacquiao.
Pacquiao changed plans and decided to turn on the heat and “put the pedal to the metal” so to speak.
He raised the bar and the only thing poor Solis can do was put up a valiant fight and hopefully prolong the inevitable. Solis managed to do that for at least the 7th round.
But an enraged Pacquiao is a very dangerous Pacquiao.
With powerful combinations that seemed to come from all over the place Solis could not do anything to defend himself, much less throw punches in the direction of Pacquiao. In fact, at the post fight news conference, Solis admitted that Pacquiao is so fast that he had a very hard time seeing where the punches are coming from.
In the 8th, Solis was knocked down twice. Although he beat the count after the first knocked down, he was so beat that he failed to do the same after the second one, giving Pacquiao a KO victory.
“Nun nakita ko na groggy na siya tapos nun unang knocked down, alam ko tapos na ang labanan,“ said Pacquiao (When I saw him groggy after the first KD, I knew the game is over).
With that, Solis’s clean record suddenly had a blemish. He joined the infamous list of Mexican pugs that fell before Pacquiao and sealed the Pacman’s reputation as the “Mexican assassin.”
Solis ending up with the others was inevitable. But, it was hastened because of the head butt.
Click here to view a list of other articles written by Ed de la Vega, DDS.
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