Maybe Pacquiao isn’t the only one who will show Battle Scars tonight

By Robbie Bannatyne - 11/23/2013 - Comments

rios92By Robbie Bannatyne: Football is my first love, but my affection and passion for the sport of boxing is genuine and authentic.

Football fans are a fickle bunch, yet they are nowhere as cynical as boxing enthusiasts. When much loved football players grow old, fans tend to gracefully acknowledge the aging process and concede that the player can no longer perform to their prime capacity. Pessimism plays subordinate to nostalgia, and great players in the twilight of their careers are normally treated with the respect they deserve. Sadly, the brutal nature of boxing seems to also solidify the soul of fans and writers alike, many of whom seem to derive great satisfaction from the physical decline of ring legends such as Manny Pacquiao.

This thirst for failure has resulted in a tremendous amount of paper talk about how Pacquiao will be retired by Brandon Rios tonight when they meet in Macao, China.

They say he is already damaged goods.

This is of course due to the fact that the Filipino fans favorite was brutally knocked out by Juan Manuel Marquez’s perfectly timed counter punch, which exploded off Pacman’s chin, planking him face first onto the canvas.

Whilst Pacquiao was briefly separated from his senses that fateful night, the after effect can still be found in many boxing writers, who still seem to have fragile grasp of their faculties. The hysteria caused by that vicious blow still has a vice like grip on the sanity of the prophets of doom who predict a similar outcome for Pacquiao on Saturday.

The rationale underpinning their assertion is that Pacquiao will be unable to handle head shots from the heavy hitting Brandon Rios. The factors which are used to support their contention are of course the indelible effect of his knockout from Marquez allied to the natural aging process, and the general wear and tear from career that has been punctuated by endless wars.

All this may indeed be correct. It is well within the realms of possibility that Rios can cause a major upset and claim the greatest scalp of his career. Anyone who can balance the capacity to sustain such tremendous physical trauma with the ability to throw solid shots of significant power for the full 12 rounds of a fight is a force to be reckoned.

But what I am willing to dismiss outright, as pure fantasy, is the notion that Pacquiao is now a faded fighter, whose once raging fire reduced to the dying embers a long time ago.

People trot out his recent record of two consecutive defeats as conclusive proof that Pacquiao should be put out to pasture.

But anyone with even a modicum of knowledge about boxing knows Timothy Bradley barely won a round in their fight. In the aftermath of the Marquez fight, the boxing world suffered a collective case of amnesia, as they conveniently forgot how Marquez was dangerously close to being dispatched by Pacquiao prior to the lethal blow which put the lights out on the Filipino legends challenge.

I am not being partisan in favour of Pacquiao, I’m simply trying to portray an accurate picture of proceedings.

Pacquiao’s major problem is that the hands of time have diminished his defensive reflexes to the point where he is now very vulnerable to a counter from his opponent- when he is on his way out from an attack. Still the devastating hand speed, punching power and precocious energy remain intact. I believe these tools will allow Pacquiao to finish the task against Rios, irrespective of whether or not there is indeed any enduring damage from Marquez’s deft right hand.

I believe the lateral movement which accompanies his ‘in and out’ offensive rhythm will allow Pacman to effectively emulate Mike Alvarado, who was able to minimize the amount of time spent fighting inside the proverbial ‘phone box’ with Rios in their rematch. Richard Abril is responsible for the blue print on how to beat Brandon Rios by avoiding being dragged into trench warfare. Sadly he wasn’t awarded the decision, as boxing politics claimed yet another victim.

More importantly, though, a point which I have yet to see anyone present, in either the print or online press, is that Brandon Rios has also been involved in a lot of wars recently, and has taken a tremendous amount of physical punishment in his short career at the top of the sport.

In his only other fight this year, Rios was soundly beaten by Mike Alvarado in their rematch, another brain cell bashing bloodbath befitting of their 1st contest 2012’s ‘Fight of the Year’. Two blood curdling wars inside of six months are bound to have left some lasting battle scars on Brandon Rios also.

So whilst he may not be as war torn as Manny Pacquiao, we may soon find out Brandon Rios is not as young as a fresh as his relatively tender 27 years suggest.

Either way, both men will definitely wake up tomorrow morning knowing full well they went to war the night before.



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