Larry Merchant: The Philippines is a treasure trove of boxing
By Emmanuel Rivera, RRT
PhilBoxing.com
Sun, 13 Apr 2014
Las Vegas, Nevada -- Larry Merchant shares his historical perspective on Filipino prizefighters.
?I?m not a book of knowledge about Filipino fighters. I do know of an outstanding flyweight/bantamweight almost a century ago [Pancho Villa] who beat a guy named Jimmy Wilde to win the world flyweight championship by knockout. Later in in his short career, he fought a much heavier fighter Jimmy McLarnin who went on to be welterweight champion.?
?Ceferino Garcia, who fought in the 1940?s, was another great middleweight who drew with hall-of-famer Henry Armstrong; thus, preventing him from a fourth title in as many weight classes.?
?Gabriel ?Flash? Elorde I saw in the later part of his career fighting the great featherweight Sandy Saddler beating him in Manila. In a rematch in San Francisco, California, Saddler stopped Elorde on cuts. At Madison Square Garden, I saw one of the greatest lightweight fighter I ever saw Carlos Ortiz stopped Elorde in the later rounds.?
?I have dim recollections of Luisito Espinosa fighting in an outdoor venue in Manila in front of hundreds of thousands of people. You called it ?Battle of Manila Bay, I believe.?
?So to me, Manny Pacquiao may have appeared out of nowhere. You know in boxing terms, he came from somewhere. There is a rich history there.
Tonight, the tradition continues for the Filipino fighters as Manny Pacquiao battles Timothy Bradley for the WBO welterweight crown at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, Nevada.
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