July 1, 2006
MANILA, PHILIPPINES
Philippine national hero Manny “Pacman” Pacquiao (41-3-2, 33 KOs) will put his WBC international 130-pound belt on the line against ex-WBC superbantam ruler Oscar “Chololo” Larios (56-4-1, 36 KOs), Mexico, tomorrow at the Araneta Coliseum, Quezon City, Metro Manila. It is billed as “Thriller in Manila #2”, which has caused tremendously great sensation here.
Pacquiao’s popularity in this country is beyond description. The Filipino southpaw may be by far more popular than President Arroyo. ABS-CBN TV, the sponsor of the event, has kept showing various publicities from morning till night every day. You see Pacman’s face everywhere in commercial endorsements such as McDonald, publicities on electric poles, sports columns in all papers. You may misunderstand Pacquiao is the president of this country. It might be no exaggeration Pacquiao is a sort of religion accepted by all people here. Pacman himself is the promoter with the energetic assistance of his partner Rex Wakee Salud, an influential impresario in Cebu.
Pacman has climbed up to the stardom by dispatching Mexican prides Marco Antonio Barrera and Erik Morales in the US, which certainly delighted and encouraged the whole nation. The 27-year-old fistic hero will take on another Mexican legend Larios, who is regarded as one of the most excellent 122-pounders in the world though he recently lost his WBC belt to Israel Vazquez by a third-round TKO defeat owing to a bad gash last December. Pacquiao himself was formerly a 112-pounder as he conquered the WBC flyweight throne by demolishing Chatchai Sasakul in Thailand in 1998. He jumped three classes up to the 122-pound division and seized the IBF superbantam belt by disposing of Lehlo Ledwaba in the sixth round in 2001. People in the world then couldn’t imagine the Filipino would become such a big thing or a real deal.
Oscar Larios, 29, is physically taller and possesses a longer reach than Pacman. The Mexican had an exceptionally big physique as a 122-pounder, so he never physically looked inferior to Pacman at the weigh-in at 8 am today (Saturday). Pacquiao tipped the beam at 129.5 pounds to 129 for Larios. Pacman, however, seemed much more muscular and accordingly more powerful than Larios, who is also a hard-puncher if his previous oppositions cannot be compared with those Pacquiao recently destroyed. The Mexican acquired the vacant WBC interim superbantam belt by scoring a dramatic stoppage of his grudge rival and current WBC titlist Israel Vazquez in the final session in 2002. Since then, Larios kept his WBC throne nine times beating such game challengers as Wayne McCullough (twice), Nedal Hussein (who once floored Pacquiao despite a controversial tenth round stoppage loss in 2000) to his credit prior to his recent forfeiture of the WBC crown. Larios is still at his prime.
Pacman is a prefight favorite with the local odds 10-4. He is expected to finish the affair within the first six rounds, but people here don’t know well what Larios is and how strong he is. Larios is an excellent boxer-puncher who can box at a long distance and mix up in the close range. He can use his faster footwork than Barrera and Morales, if necessary. The busy-punching Mexican boasts of his abundant stamina, having once scored more than 1,600 punches in twelve rounds.
Pacman is a very dangerous early starter, as shown in his drawn game with Juan Manuel Marquez whom he dropped three times in the opening canto in 2004. Should his dynamite southpaw left hand explode early, Manny will be victorious as Filipino general public whole-heartedly expect. But if Larios should survive the first four sessions, he may or may not utilize his superior experience in frustrating Pacman with his versatile combinations to the full extent of his power. Anything may happen.
Larios, prior to his entry to Manila, stayed three weeks in Tokyo, Japan, where he had strenuous sparring sessions with such highly regarded southpaws as WBC bantam kingpin Hozumi Hasegawa, WBC #4 ranked 122-pounder Toshiaki Nishioka, unbeaten golden boy Takahiro Ao, fast-rising Akifumi Shimoda, etc. at Akihiko Honda’s Teiken Gym. This training schedule was instructed by his business manager Rafael “Cobra” Mendoza, who has represented 18 world champs out of Mexico, including Pipino Cuevas, Miguel Canto, Humberto Chiquita Gonzalez, Daniel Zaragoza, Gilberto Roman, et al. Unlike other countries, Japan is full of southpaws since there is no concept of a “converted southpaw” as Japanese instructors make it a rule to have natural lefties fight in a southpaw stance as they are. It is said Larios looked terrible against southpaw partners at first, but got accustomed well to coping with them before his departure for Manila. Larios may show a much better performance than Filipino people expect.
The curtain raiser bout will start no later than 8 am tomorrow, and the main event of the Pacquiao-Larios may begin at about 11 am in accordance with the US TV time. The officials are as follows: referee Bruce McTavish (New Zealand); judges Humberto Furgoni (France), Daniel Van de Wiele (Belgium) and Nopparat Sricharoen (Thailand); and supervisor Mauro Betti (Italy).
(7-1-06)