Pacquiao-Mosley fight disappoints fans

WHILE almost everyone at the Radisson Blu Hotel who watched yesterday’s Manny Pacquiao-Sugar Shane Mosley world title fight expressed frustration over Mosley’s constant back-pedalling and overly defensive stance, one soul in the jam-packed Santa Maria Ballroom believes Mosley did the right thing.

Cebu City Vice Mayor Joy Augustus Young said Mosley cannot be blamed for opting to run away from Pacquiao’s attacks.

“I believe sakto man ang gibuhat ni Mosley,” said Young. “He has no other option but to evade Pacquiao’s assault. He can’t afford to engage Manny in a slugfest, otherwise he will be blown away.”

Mosley, a former three division champion, drew flak from boxing fans for his failure to put up a decent challenge as reflected in the scores of the three judges, where he got a humiliating 108-120 score from the two judges, and a 109-119 from the other.

“You can’t totally blame Mosley. He tried to have a faceoff with Pacquiao in the earlier rounds and look what happened, he was knocked down,” Young said.

“And I think he just tried to preserve his record of not being knocked out in his career. That, I think, is his only consolation in this one-sided fight,” Young added.

Sparring session

Meanwhile, Cebu City Mayor Michael Rama shared the same thought with many Cebuano fans of Manny Pacquiao— that the soon-to-be Hall of Famer Mosley was a big disappointment.

“Mosley is a disappointment. The challenger is supposed to be aggressive against the champion, not the other way around,” said Rama, who watched the fight at the Parklane Hotel.

“The fight is more of a sparring session. Even so, I’m proud and happy Pacquiao won. It’s still good entertainment,” Rama said.

Although disgusted by Mosley’s performance, American tourist Rey Shackleford found a little bright spot in the fight.

“It’s really not a good matchup. But it seems Pacquiao and Mosley kept their friendship after the battle,” he said.

Boring

Other fans at the Radisson Blu felt the same way with Rama.

“So boring. Sige lang dagan si Mosley. I was very frustrated with his performance. While Pacquiao appeared well prepared, the latter lacked Plan B, making the fight so one-sided,” said 68-year-old Arthur San Diego.

Call center agent Marvin Ligat, 32, said Mosley failed in his bid to put up a decent challenge because he kept on running.

“Since round 1, he has been on defensive mode, which is not good for a title challenger. He should have engaged Pacquiao in a toe-to-toe slugfest, where he had a chance to connect his vaunted power punches and inflict some damage on Pacquiao. It turned out he is more cut out as a runner than a boxer,” he said.

Because of Mosley’s boring boxing style yesterday, some fans even found other ways to enjoy the fight.

“Nalingaw ko kay guapa kaayo si Jinky (Pacquiao) ug Paris (Hilton). Kapoy tan-awn ang fight kay sige dagan si Mosley. Maypa mga artista na lang ila gipakita.” said the 19-year-old Madelyn delos Reyes. /with reports from reporter Kelvin Canizares