MARGARITO?S HEIGHT AND WEIGHT ADVANTAGE WORKED AGAINST HIM
By Ed de la Vega, DDS
PhilBoxing.com
Mon, 15 Nov 2010
Arlington, Texas:- Boxing?s myth states that a ?good fighter with a height and weight advantage will always beat another good fighter who is shorter and lighter?.
Who ever coined that phrase obviously forgot that speed could be a factor that could blow the myth clear to kingdom come.
Manny Pacquiao the fighting Congressman from Sarangani did just that Saturday at the cavernous Cowboys Stadium located in this suburban city a few miles from Dallas.
In a dazzling show of speed that mimicked a meteor streaking down from the heavens, Pacquiao danced around Antonio Margarito and hit him from all angles making the poor boxer who fans called the ?Tijuana Tornado? appear like a mere west wind blowing softly across a meadow.
Of course he got some hits including a couple of dirty (and illegal) but unintentional kidney punches that really hurt the Filipino spite fire and ignited a fierce respond.
Whenever Margarito hits Pacquiao, the latter will throw back several punches that mostly hit their target. In fact Pacquiao?s ?hit ratio? was almost double that of Margarito?s. The obvious result was a face that seemed to have been run over by an empty 18-wheeler truck speeding down from the hills near Bakersfield towards Los Angeles. And no one even got to see the plate number of the truck!
Margarito?s face was puffed and cut making some trauma facial surgeon some good money to fix. His injuries reminded me of the ?pretty boy? Oscar de la Hoya when he quit in his corner after 8 long rounds with Pacquiao, but in a much larger scale.
With his spectacular win over Margarito, a record has been set. Pacquiao is now the only man in this world, living or dead, that won eight boxing titles in different weight divisions. It will be a very long time before another man will come around to even come close in duplicating such record, let along surpass it. I am guessing such will never come in this generation?s life time.
One interesting trivia about Pacquiao?s victory against Margarito is the fact that he has added another notch in his moniker as the ?Mexicutioner?. No fighter from any country has ever done such feat against Mexican boxers who are best known for their ?fighting heart? and ?die in the ring attitude?.
Margarito in his defeat proved to be a ?true Mexican? in the boxing sense of the word.
Anyone else would have quit such onslaught. Just ask Oscar.
He gave it all but his weight advantage over the very small Pacquiao proved to be a disadvantage. He was slow as a fully loaded logging truck chug-chugging down from some logging town somewhere in northwest USA.
Before he can throw his jabs, Pacquiao has gone and out of range and when he tries to try to catch up with him, the Filipino is nowhere to be found. Then suddenly he will seemly appear like a puff of smoke and start raining the combinations on the poor Mexican. With that he effectively destroyed whatever game plan Robert Garcia has devised for him.
To those of us who are privileged to see him train at the Wildcard, the said combinations are nothing new. We see him constantly practice them with his famed trainer, Freddie Roach. But man, were they effective! Extremely effective, in fact!
Margarito?s reach advantage became a dis-advantage as well. As Nonito Donire told us as we walked back to our hotel after the fight :- ?it is easier to punch upwards than downwards.?
That seemed true with Margarito. He had a heck of a time when Pacquiao ducks in front of him.
In the end, Pacquiao made a mockery of the weight and reach advantage of Margarito. But then again, he can only do that because he was Manny Pacquiao.
No one else can do such feat because truly, the man is a gifted athlete who comes around once in a life time.
The super scary way Pacquiao managed his fight with Margarito was beyond words to truly describe. It was a perfect description of what the ?sweet science? is all about.
Sadly however, I believe it will prevent us from seeing a fight that we all wanted to see, a duel at sunset somewhere in Las Vegas against the big mouth native of Detroit, Floyd Mayweather Jr. (or is that MayNever?)
I am sure that with what Floyd Junior saw tonight, he will hide in his mother?s coattails and never come out again until the Pacman leaves boxing for his other day job as a Congressman in the Philippines.
Click here to view a list of other articles written by Ed de la Vega, DDS.
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