HISTORY SHOWS PACQUIAO COMES BACK STRONG AFTER A DEFEAT
By Eddie Alinea
PhilBoxing.com
Sat, 19 Mar 2016
LOS ANGELES, CA -- In a career spanning 20 years, Manny Pacquiao has shown how to rise from one adversity to another in amassing 57 wins, highlighted by 38 knockouts, six losses and two draws in the process becoming the only human being on the planet to win 10 world titles in eight weight divisions.
Six times, the now 37-year-old native of Kibawe in far away Bukidnon in Mindanao, would come home a loser but emerged a winner five times after those losses in an amazing display of bouncing ability seen only in men of no non-sense willpower and determination.
This year marks Pacquiao's 21st year of his boxing career and on April 9 he will be fighting his 66th fight in another attempt to vault back from the last of his defeat carrying the country's colors and on his shoulders the hope and aspirations of his people.
Opposing him on the MGM square Arena is American Timothy Bradley, one of the only six men who dealt him a setback, his fourth and a controversy-filled one at that, in 2012, the same year he took a sixth round KO loss to arch-rival Juan Manuel Marquez, a fellow future Hall of Famer whom he beat twice before and drawn once in their four-fight classic.
Pacquiao works out at Griffith Park in Los Angeles Friday. Photo by Wendell Rupert Alinea.
Pacquiao, "Pacman" or "Pacific Storm" or "Fighting Congressman" to the world of sweet science, started his pro-career in 1995 as a 16-year-old stow away in Manila who had to put extra weights in his pocket to make the light-flyweight limit.
He caught the local fight community by storm marching triumphantly to conquer, one after another, his first 10 opponents in his rookie year until he stumbled on an obscure fighter by the name of Rustico Torrecampo, who handed him his first defeat -- a third round KO in a 10-round flyweight scrap held Feb. 9 1996 in Mandaluyong City.
NBA coach Pat Riley once said: "In every adversity is a seed of equivalent benefit; it is up to you to find it."
Driven by his burning desire to help his family he left behind in General Santos City, Pacquiao continued his search for glory and in the following two years rocked up 13 straight victories, 11 of them via stoppage to crown himself the Orient-Pacific Boxing Federation flyweight titlist at the expense of Thai Chokchai Chowiwat, whom he KOed in only five rounds, in 1997 and the World Boxing Council 112-pound belt owner after disposing off another Thai, Chatchai Sasakul in eighth. the following year.
He lost the crown as fast though in 1999 when, failing to make the 112-pound required poundage, bowed to Medgoen Lukchaopormasak who sent him to dreamland in four rounds.
Still, six more fights in a stretch of two years catapulted him to full stardom when, in 2001 fighting for the first time in the United States and as a substitute contender under the tutelage of a new trainer in the person of then Hall of Fame candidate Freddie Roach, Pacquiao virtually ended African Lehlohonolo Ledwaba's career with a sensational sixth round KO to win the International Boxing Federation super-bantamweight plum.
The rest was history, as the saying goes.
From being the world's best in the flyweight and super-bantamweight categories, the now father of five with wife, Vice Gov. Jinkee Jamora-Pacquiao, egged on by his countrymen who have been supporting him in his tour of duty to all boxing capitals of the world, elevated himself to greatness, adding the Ring featherweight, WBC super-featherweight, WBC lightweight, IBO/Ring junior-welterweight, WBO welterweight and WBC super-welterweight title collection.
The road to the top wasn't easy though. Drawbacks at the hands of Erik Morales in 2005, Bradley himself in 2012, Marquez, also in 2012, and Mayweather in what was supposed to be the "Fight of the Century" showdown last year, might somewhat dampened his quest for honors for himself, his country, and people.
But for this once-in-a lifetime fighter who has accomplished everything a fighter can in electrifying style, the fight continues. Except for his losses to Torrecampo and Luckchaopormasak, he more than made up for his defeats to Morales, whom he subsequently knocked out twice, and Bradley, whom he overwhelmed in a rematch.
The soon-to-be senator still has a winning 2-1-1 win-loss-draw record against Marquez and could be looking forward to a second meeting the perfect 49-0 Mayweather to reacquire his reputation as "comeback king" of the ring.
Click here to view a list of other articles written by Eddie Alinea.
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