In the contemporary fight ring, Manny Pacquiao is a pound-for-pound champion, up there with the nonpareils like Floyd Mayweather. To his adoring Filipino public, he is a natural treasure, about to be overwhelmingly voted into their Congress. With his public appeal and his acknowledged intelligence, he could be on his way to dominating their body politic.
He gave his candidacy a convincing boost last weekend when he took on the Mexican stylist Jorge Solis who came to the ring with a record of 32 wins and no defeats. Solis had speculated that his demonstrable boxing ability could neutralise Pacquiao's rapid-fire two-handed attack and win him the WBC international super featherweight title. But as nice a boxer as Solis has proved in all those winning fights, it was not enough to stand off the fastest hands in the game today, with the possible exception of his rival pound-for-pounder Floyd Mayweather.
My notes said it all: "Rd 1, The fast hands of P." "Rd 2, The fast hands of P." "Rd 3, The fast hands of P." "Rd 4, The fast hands of P" Only in the fifth was Solis able to interfere with Pacquiao's winning ways. The Mexican was finally able to get his fast jabs working, and it deterred the Philippine icon momentarily, giving Solis the only round he won.
Solis was able to score with two impressive right crosses in the sixth and even more damage was inflected by a butt that opened a nasty cut over Pacquiao's left eye, one of the rare times he has been cut. But quick lefts in rebuttal put some hurt on Solis, and even though he fought back in take-no-prisoners Mexican style, we had to give the hard-fought round to the Filipino windmill.
Solis found the target again in the seventh but his advantage was momentary as those fast hands of Pacquiao's took over again and continued to dictate the action.
In the eight and ninth rounds, ignoring the blood dripping from his eye, the Filipino congressional candidate simply had too many hands for Solis, who could evade the first, second, third punches, only to find himself a target of the fourth, fifth and sixth. Which accumulated to put Solis down. And finally out. Solis goes into the record books as one more capable victim unable to contend with Pacquiao'sincredible hand speed and punching power.
At the junior lightweight limit of 130 pounds, Manny Pacquiao would seem to have run out of worthy challengers. He has knocked out the two Mexican stars in the division, Marco Barrera and Erik Morales. A remarkable feat. And like the welterweight champion Mayweather, he seems to be in a league of his own.
He may have to abandon his sport and look for new worlds to conquer simply because there seems to be no one out there who can present worthy opposition. Call him unico. Unique. Can you think of any other aspiring politician headed for the Boxing Hall of Fame?
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