MANILA, 25 July 2003 — Filipino world champion Manny Pacquiao will be up against tremendous odds despite setting out as the overwhelming favorite against Mexican challenger Emmanuel Lucero in their title bout in Los Angeles on July 26.
The pride of General Santos City is expected to receive a rude welcome at the Grand Olympic Auditorium from a highly-partisan Hispanic crowd who will root for Lucero in their scheduled 12-round showdown.
Interestingly, the 78-year-old Grand Olympic Auditorium is a notorious snakepit for visiting fighters opposing Mexicans or Latinos. Fans here are mostly of Mexican descent and unforgiving when expressing partisanship.
For the record, no Filipino has ever won a world title bout in the venue. Speedy Dado was outpointed by Freddie Miller for the featherweight title in 1933 and super bantamweight Bobby Berna was knocked out by Jaime Garza in 1983. Pacquiao stands to become the first Filipino ever to win a world title bout at the Olympic — 70 years after Dado’s bid and 20 after Berna’s.
And don’t forget the man Pacquiao is set to meet in the ring.
Lucero’s unbeaten record will put more pressure on Pacquiao who will be making the fourth defense of the 122-lb crown he won in Las Vegas in June 2001 when he knocked out South African Lehlo Ledwaba in the sixth round.
Lucero, born in Mexico and raised in the Bronx, New York is a deadly 24-year-old fighter who turned professional in 1998 and is the reigning World Boxing Council (WBC) Continental Americas super bantamweight titlist. He boasts of a 21-0-1 win-loss-draw record with 12 knockouts to his credit.
He was cut twice on the head from accidental headbutts by Angel Chacon and the referee ruled the bout a first-round technical draw in Texas in July last year in favor of the former. Lucero took a 10-month rest before returning to action against Marty Dale Robbins in a six-rounder in Temecula, California, last May. Lucero is said to be a born rugged boxer armed with dirty tactics. Three years ago, he fought John Lowery and got away with a foul-filled unanimous decision to seize the WBC Continental Americas title. They butted, held, and hit below the belt. Lucero appeared vulnerable to the overhand right and lost steam in the late going. At the end of the bout, Lucero suffered a bad cut on his head.
In March last year, Lucero was floored twice in the first round but fought back to beat Archuleta, who went down thrice himself, on points. The hard-earned victory earned Lucero a reputation of toughness. His nickname ‘Carnecerio’ means butcher in Spanish.
On the other hand, the 24-year-old Pacquiao sports a 36-2-1 win-loss-draw card, with 27 knockout He left Manila for the US last July 1, two weeks later than scheduled. He is in Los Angeles, training under the watchful eye of Freddie Roach at the Wild Card Gym in Hollywood.
In his last fight, Pacquiao came close to defeat when he fought Serikzhan Yeshmangbetov of Kazakhstan.
The southpaw Pacquiao knocked out his Kazakh opponent in the fifth round of their scheduled 10-round non-title bout before a thrilled hometown crowd at the Luneta Park, but not before flirting with disaster.
Lustily cheered on by a mammoth hometown crowd, the southpaw Pacquiao floored his worthy foreign opponent in an up-from-the-floor fifth-round win that served the Filipino boxing idol a lesson well.
Obviously, the victory did not come easy for Pacquiao, the country’s lone world champion today. The unfancied Kazakh turned out to be a tough-as-nails puncher who came to within a punch away from registering one of the biggest upsets in local ring history. The Filipino slugger had to survive the bout, particularly when Yeshmangbetov decked him in the fourth round. It marked only the fourth time in a colorful professional career that Pacquiao suffered a knockdown.
Yeshmangbetov had his nose bloodied since the first round and had an ugly mouse under his left eye by the third. Still, he refused to run as was expected, trading mean punches with the sentimental favorite.
Pacquiao told promoter Bebot Elorde that he only allowed the fight to get exciting, but he later admitted he was very confident of dismissing his opponent.
He said the crowd’s wish to see him knock Yeshmangbetov as quick as possible, prevented him from following the script laid out by his cornermen.
Pacquiao ran straight into Yeshmangbetov’s short thunderous right, sending him on the seat of his black trunks, as stunned as he was dazed.
The sentimental favorite dismissed the knockdown as a sort of a lucky punch from Yeshmangbetov moments after the fight, but later admitted that he thought the Kazakh would easily fold.
Out of embarrassment and bravado, Pacquiao got up as the third man was just about to start his count. He was immediately up for the mandatory eight-count and used the following seconds to dance around and recover his bearing. Once he did, Yeshmangbetov found himself in deep trouble.
All of a sudden, Pacquiao was on the attack near the end of the round, Yeshmangbetov saved in part by the tape that came loose on his left glove and needed to be re-attached.
The tape again came undone, but this time early in the fateful round. And the brief lull was enough to further pump up Pacquiao, who has been chipping at Yeshmangbetov’s chiseled features since the opening bell with his vicious left. Pacquiao threw a poison-packed left straight to the face of his opponent who hit the canvas and be counted eight.
More vicious lefts to the head and face by Pacquiao sent Yeshmangbetov almost halfway out of the ropes near his own corner.
Although Yeshmangbetov immediately sprang up, referee Ver Abainza promptly stopped the fight at 1:52 of the 5th, giving Pacquiao his 28th KO win in a record that also has 37 wins, two losses and one draw.
More nagging questions came out after Pacquiao’s win against Yeshmangbetov.
Is Pacquiao capable of campaigning — and winning — in the featherweight division as he is in the super bantamweight class? Whether Pacquiao can bring his awesome power to the featherweight ranks, which is four lbs above the super-bantam class.
