It's been three days since the historical event, at least in the Boxing World's point of view, the Pacquiao-Dela Hoya fight and still it is the talk of the town in the Philippines. I am tempted to write about it not just because I am a Filipino and a fan myself but because I want to share some of my thought apart from the common understanding people accounted for the Pacquiao triumph.They say Pacquiao has become more agile and complete fighter. To my point of view, the fighter in Pacquiao has not changed, it's dela Hoya that changed.
Reviewing the previous fights of Manny and Oscar some reality can be observed. Manny has the same intensity and agility as his previous fights. The quick punches, the lateral movements, the foot works, and his trademark moves were still there with the same magnitude despite the changes in weight. For Oscar, I missed a lot of the dela Hoya arsenal. For the entire eight rounds he threw limited power punches. He lost the aggressiveness shown in the Mayweather and the Mayorga fight, and his other heymaker fights. What caused the drastic change? I'm not sure. Oscar had been in the same situation as the Pacquiao bout. The Mayweather fight is more upsetting than this latter one, but Oscar made serious attempts to score. He boxed, chased, and countered Mayweather a lot, something I missed in his style. Haven't dela Hoya changed, the fight could have been more exciting.
But there's I more thing I admired about Pacquiao. He never failed to take a short time to pray on a neutral corner. God is always in his mind as he asked the Lord no harm should fall to both of them during the fight. We salute Manny for that!
Photo from www.usatoday.com