STARWEEK COVER PHOTO NEWS: PACMAN ON ANOTHER HISTORIC MISSION TODAY
MANILA, NOVEMBER 14, 2010 (STARweek) By Teodoro M. Reynoso - Manny "Pacman" Pacquiao is on another history-making mission – break the Filipino jinx in the super-welterweight division in world boxing – as he takes on Mexico's Antonio "Tornado" Margarito for the vacant World Boxing Council's crown today at the cavernous Dallas Cowboy Stadium in Texas, USA.
Pacquiao, the Filipino megastar who had long been regarded as the world's best pound-for-pound fighter, will go for the 154-lb division crown against the dangerous Mexican to add to his list of feats. Among these are being the first Filipino boxer to win a major world title (WBC) in the lightweight (135 lbs.) division and the first Pinoy – and Asian for that matter – to capture a major championship (WBO) in the welterweight (147 lbs) class.
Already a multi-titled world boxing champion having won world and linear belts in the flyweight, super-bantamweight, featherweight and junior lightweight classes, Pacquiao further made history by succeeding where fellow great Pinoy boxer Gabriel "Flash" Elorde and a few fellow Asians had failed – capturing the WBC lightweight and WBO welterweight crowns in 2008 and 2009, respectively.
He crushed the hapless David Diaz inside eight rounds and stopped Puerto Rican Miguel Cotto in the last round achieve the feats. In between, he won the IBO and Ring Magazine junior welterweight belt by knocking out Britain's pride Ricky Hatton in two rounds.
Pacquiao will go for an unprecedented eighth world crown in eight weight divisions and a historic first for Filipino boxers in the junior middleweight class when he tangles against the once-discredited but still lethal Margarito at the Dallas stadium which is the same venue of his well-attended welterweight title defense against Ghanaian challenger Joshua Clottey.
[PHOTO AT LEFT - Manny Pacquiao is on a mission to win a record breaking eighth world crown]
As in his previous fights, his countrymen will ride on his iron fist, explosive speed and raw courage to gain another glory for the boxing-batty nation.
No Filipino boxer had won any major world title in the junior middleweight class since the division was instituted in the late 1950s. On the other hand, a few other Asians had won major titles in the weight class and beyond, like South Koreans Kim Ki Soo and In Chul Baek and Japanese Koichi Wajima, Mushashi Kudo and Tadashi Mihara who reigned for a time either as WBA, WBC or IBF champions.
The closest that a Filipino had come to contending for a crown in the 154-lb division was when Armand Picar, fresh from his first round KO win over the highly regarded Korean champion Yang Kil Chung for the Orient-Pacific belt, was given the chance to challenge then WBC champion Julio Cesar Vasquez of Argentina in 1994 in a Don King-promoted card at the MGM in Las Vegas, but was stopped inside two rounds. Picar died in a terrorist bomb attack in Mindanao in 2003.
Through the years, a number of Filipino boxers, including a half-Filipino American creole, had emerged to campaign in the welterweight and higher weight divisions. A few came close, including the ill-starred Picar and decent fighters like William Magahin and Dondon Sultan, who won obscure titles in the 147-lb class, and a half-Ilocano named Bernard "Big Duke" Docusen who fought and lost to the great Sugar Ray Robinson in a title fight in 1948.
But many could not even attain or go past regional competitiveness. Among these few Pinoy big boys were the following:
Ireneo Flores of the noted Flores boxing family from Manila, who was among the pioneering Pinoy prizefighters in the pre-war era. He figured in a series of hard fights versus the great Ceferino Garcia for the Oriental lightweight title and won regional belt in the welterweight class against tough American oppositions like Young Tiger Flowers, Young Harry Wills, Jimmy Hill and Louis Logan. He compiled an overall ring record of 61 victories, including 26 by KO, against 32 defeats, 9 by KO, and 22 draws covering 117 bouts in a career that spanned more than a dozen years between 1923 and 1935.
Only Mexican Antonio Margarito stands in his way.
Former WBC junior welterweight champion (1968-70) Pedro "The Rock" Adigue from Masbate, who fought and beat by surprise 1st round KO then future long-time and many-time WBC jr. middleweight titleholder Koichi Wajima in 1969, campaigned in the welterweight class and up, meeting such foes as then world contenders Oscar "Shotgun" Albarado, Ryu Somarichu and Hector Thompson.
Revero "Rev" Santillan alias Gentle Giant, from Iloilo City, who had compiled a record of 26 wins, 19 by KO/TKO, against 7 defeats and one draw since starting his pro career as a welterweight in 1995, is now campaigning as a junior middleweight based in Japan. He held the OPBF welterweight belt many times, winning it first in 2001 by outpointing Korean Suk Hyun Yoon, losing it a year after to Japan's Hiroshi Watanabe on split points decision, then regaining it in 2004 by beating the same Watanabe. He would lose it again to another Japanese Kazuhiko Hidaka by 4th round KO before regaining it back from Hidaka by a revenge 8th round brutal KO.
Again he would drop the crown to yet another Japanese, Hiroshi Yamaguchi, on points in 2006 and get it back by beating Taise Marumoto by 6th round TKO. He would lose the title for the final time to yet another Japanese Motoki Sasaki by 6th round TKO who would also defeat him in a rematch by 7th round stoppage. The rangy (5'11") Santillan has since moved to the 154-lb class but has just won one of his three fights in the division thus far, all held in Japan where he has stayed for years.
Dan de Guzman from Nueva Ecija fought in the welterweight class and above between 1974 and 1983, compiling a record of 22 fights that included 15 wins (7 by KO), 7 losses (5 by KO/TKO) and no draw. He held wins over Adigue, Hector Thompson and former world junior welterweight champion Saensak Muangsurin of Thailand and won OPBF titles in the 140-lb and 147-lb weight division.
Coach Freddie Roach has been whipping Pacquiao into shape as he takes on the super-welterweight division.
Fel Pedranza, born in Capas, Tarlac, had amassed a ring record of 44 fights between 1961 and 1976 winning 24 fights, including a significant 6th round KO victory over the then up and coming Japanese fighter named Takeshi "Paul" Fujii in Tokyo, Japan in 1966 a year before Fujii's assumption to the WBC junior welterweight throne. Perdranza, who failed in two tries to wrest the OPBF welterweight title, also held wins over former world junior welterweight titlist Roberto Cruz, former OPBF champion Rocky Alarde and long-time contender Fil Ravelo while drawing against Pedro Adigue, another Filipino world champion in the 140-lb division.
Manfredo Alipala, another Tarlaqueño, fought in the 1964 Tokyo Olympics as a welterweight, winning one of two elimination bouts before turning pro as a middleweight in 1966. He compiled a quite unflattering ring record of just two wins against eight losses between 1966 and 1970. But there's nothing to be ashamed of since he fought against many of the region's best fighters and world-beaters, such as Korea's Kim Ki Soo, then world junior middleweight champion who outpointed him over 12 rounds for the OPBF middleweight belt in 1968, and world contender Sung Kap Choi, and Japan's Takeshi Paul Fujii and black Jap-Am Cassius Naito.
As can be seen, Filipino boxers have thus far been luckless in the 154-lb class.
Ceferino Garcia remains the lone Filipino boxer to ever win a world title beyond the 147-lb weight class when he took the middleweight title by knockout over American defending titlist Fred Apostoli on Oct. 2, 1939 in New York. He held the title until May 23, 1940 when he lost it to Ken Overlin by decision.
Previous to his winning the world title in the 160-lb division, Garcia, also acknowledged as the one who introduced the famous bolo punch (later adopted and made made popular by Cuban ring legend Kid Gavilan), campaigned in the lightweight and later in the welterweight division where he failed in his challenge for the crown held by the quintessential Henry Armstrong. Ironically, Garcia held Armstrong to a draw in the defense of his middleweight crown.
Today, Pacquiao is again poised to make history, and perhaps his mission of becoming the greatest fighter of all time. Let's hope and pray that Pacquiao would break the long jinx today.
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Chief News Editor: Sol Jose Vanzi
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