PACQUIAO A SHADOW OF HIMSELF IN DEFEAT AGAINST UGAS
By Dong Secuya
PhilBoxing.com
Sun, 22 Aug 2021
The trademark dashing in and out was no longer there. Rapid fire combinations were far and in between. The devil-may-care attitude was gone. The buzzsaw who threw hundreds of punches the whole night was a distant memory.
"I'm sorry I lost tonight, I did my best but my legs were very tight and that is why I couldn't move as well as I wanted," Manny Pacquiao, the legendary boxing star out of the Philippines who won championship belts in four different decades and an array of achievements that could probably be never equaled in the history of sport, after his defeat against the Cuban star Yordenis Ugas Saturday at the near sold out T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, may have finally realized that the body has its limits however strong one's desire to stay at the pinnacle of the sport.
In his last fight against Keith Thurman in 2019, he faded badly in the second half that almost cost him the victory. It was also the first time since the first Morales fight that he absorbed too much punishment. The sign of slippage was already there during the Jeff Horn fight when he could not finish the badly hurt Australian in the 9th round.
Ugas's stinging jabs did the most damaged against Pacquiao.
Against Ugas, he was soundly outmaneuvered, out-punched and out-boxed in a highly mental and tactical fight. Countless nights playing chess could not summon the genius that carried him throughout his career.
Pacquiao lost 112 to 116 from the scorecards of Dave Moretti and Steve Weisfeld and 113-115 from Patricia Morse-Jarman.
At 42 years old, a professional boxer spanning 26 years with 486 round mileage atop the ring going into Saturday's bout, Pacquiao's body had just failed to respond to the occasion.
Maybe the oft-repeated call to hang up the gloves will finally be heeded this time around.
Father time always wins in the end.
Click here to view a list of other articles written by Dong Secuya.
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