By Dar Mead
First off, I would like to say that I expected the Manny Pacquiao vs. Sugar Shane Mosley fight to live up to the hype because Shane Mosley was never known as a defensive fighter or runner, he was known as a warrior who loved to go toe to toe, but all of a sudden he decided to survive for a paycheck. Mosley promised all of us he would get up for this fight because he was in against a fighter not a runner and that he would hit Manny harder than anyone ever hit him before, but it looked more like Mosley was the one who was hit harder than anyone ever hit him and became a runner over night. After that third round knockdown, Shane just got even more defensive and went into survival mode. Shane looked like he was being chased by a zombie.
The Pacquiao-Mosley fight was a dud. At least the Jorge Arce vs. Wilfredo Vazquez Jr. undercard fight was action packed and exciting, but people probably didn’t start paying attention until the main event started. Most of the blame goes to Shane Mosley because he didn’t live up to his end of the deal, he promised fireworks and gave us duds. This is part of the reason why they never put Manny Pacquiao in there with defensive fighters, it’s not because Manny is scared to fight them, it’s because they make for a boring fight and are scared to exchange punches. But nobody would have expected Shane Mosley of all people would switch from an aggressive power boxer to a cautious back stepper.
I am not leaving Manny off the hook, he gets his share of criticism too. Manny has changed. I know he blames his leg cramping for why he wasn’t able to capitalize on Mosley more but to me it seemed that Manny is not a fighter anymore but more of a politician trying to win image points as a nice humble guy.
I knew something was beginning to change in Manny Pacquiao when he fought Antonio Margarito and broke his eye socket and began showing pity on him for the remainder of the fight. Manny kept looking at the referee to stop the fight, and after the fight Manny said “BOXING IS NOT FOR KILLING,” well of course it isn’t, but boxing isn’t patty cake or tap gloves and hug each round like Manny and Mosley were doing in their fight.
Manny, IT IS NOT YOUR DUTY TO LOOK OUT FOR THE WELL BEING OF YOUR OPPONENT, YOUR JOB IS TO GO FOR THE KNOCKOUT AND BEAT THE GUY UNTIL THE REFEREE OR CORNER STOPS THE FIGHT! Just look at Jorge Arce, he didn’t stop punching when he was hurting Vazquez Jr. on the ropes in the twelfth round, that’s because it’s his duty as a fighter to finish strong and win the fight. Leave the stoppages and compassion to the ringside doctor, the fighters corner or the referee, you are not to worry about that. Freddie Roach kept telling Manny in the corner to be more aggressive and stop tapping Shane’s gloves like friends.
This nice humble politician thing is no good when you are in the ring, if you wanted to show mercy on Shane Mosley, then you should have knocked him out when you had the opportunity or at least tried to press him hard with more flurries instead of carrying him to give him the HONOR of finishing the fight like you did with Marco Antonio Barrera.
This is exactly what the fight looked like, it looked like the rematch between Manny Pacquiao and Marco Antonio Barrera, a fight where Manny carried Barrera and let him go the distance because Marco was near retirement and Manny probably didn’t want to knock him out again because he felt bad for him. But Barrera is a known dirty fighter, he might be your friend outside the ring but he fought Manny dirty, he tried to head butt him and he hit him off the break. Barrera knows how to separate the two worlds, he knows that in boxing you must fight to win and not show pity, in the real world you can be humble and compassionate but when you step in the ring you become a fighter not a lover or a politician.
The only time Manny Pacquiao showed any urgency to put on a beating was when he slipped in the 10th round and it was ruled a knockdown by Kenny Bayless, only then, did Manny show some aggression to attack and attack like the Manny we come to know and love.
If I was a fighter getting ready to fight Manny Pacquiao and I wanted to gain the upperhand on Manny, I would copy Shane Mosley and be friendly with Manny and hug him and call him buddy, and say nice things to him, I would also agree and say “BOXING IS NOT FOR KILLING,” because Manny will become friendly to me in the ring, and I will take advantage of that and go for the knockout on Manny Pacquiao! Trick him to go easy and show pity on me and BAM! get him and attack him hard when he least expects it. They call that the Art of War! Manny needs to learn about mental warfare, no wonder he is easily manipulated outside the ring, he is naive and thinks everyone is a good.
I think if Manny no longer has the fighting spirit to finish a wounded opponent in the ring, he should just hang up the gloves and call it quits.
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