The Grand Finale – The Fight of the Century
It was El Terrible who drew first blood from their encounter then it was pay time for Morales when Manny “Pacman” Paquiao gave Morales its first ever technical knockout (TKO)! It was a sweet revenge for the Filipinos in the person of Pacman! The venue literally fell down along with Morales! It was never done before by any opponent of El Terrible and it was a scene to remember for the rest of his boxing career!
Many critics pointed many reasons for Morales defeat, some say because his father was nowhere to be found, that Morales allegedly gave the crowd what their expecting a trilogy between Manny Paquiao and him, also some attributed it to his drastic weight lost! There are many reasons team Morales could invent and pointed at for his defeat, that’s why many waited for the grand finale – the fight of the century! So as to know the truth once and for all – who is the best fighter between them!
El Terrible took an early conditioning from main land Mexico up to the mountains, many was surprised to see Morales in tip-top condition! Never did they saw their hero trained this hard for a fight. It was a sign what to be expected come that fateful day – a war between two great boxers supported by their respective countries, in short a battle between Mexico and the Philippines!
For three months we saw Eric and Manny exchanging friendly barb to each other, making the waiting more exciting, many started asking themselves “WHO?” who will end this bout? Who will knockout who? Who is the real warrior? Who will be vindicated? Who am I going to place my bet of my hard earned money? Who will emerge victorious? Two months passed, three months, and the fight we’ve been waiting for so long has now come to time!
Its now “The Grand Finale – the Fight of the Century”, all woke up early doing their every day routines but in an earlier timetable to give them ample time to watch the Filipino hero’s fight at Thomas and Mac Center at Nevada, Las Vegas. The crowd religiously waited for this fight, saving their hard earned money just to be able to watch their Boxing Icon, to see how Manny will dispose El Terrible, and what round would it be?
When the crowd saw Manny and Eric at the big screen, many boxing aficionado shouted out their heart for their idols a scene comparable to the world trade center bombing – 9/11! Everybody is screaming, shouting, pointing at each other but it was not that dreaded scene of the 9/11 bombing no definitely not! And when the curtain fell and the film started rolling, there’s no stopping them only a knockout would halt the fight we’ve been waiting!
Round 1 – both fighters were trying the water, measuring each other but they did not fail their supporters before the bell rang to end the first round they exchanges a fury of jabs.
Round 2 – with the mounting heat from the their round they opened up the second round with lots of fireworks, they literally killed each other but before the bell rang again, Manny “Pacman” Paquiao gave Eric “El Terrible” Morales its first taste of the canvas! But Eric managed to save his self from the early TKO!
Round 3 – when round three came many did not expect that it will be over! Again they exchanges punches like their no tomorrow! Left Hook, Left Jab, Right Hook, Right jab, upper-cut, and straight from nowhere but Eric “El Terrible” Morales could not hold on anymore he was sent to the canvas two times and the second time he met the canvas it was over! Just over 2 minutes into the third round Eric “El Terrible” Morales gave up and raise the flag signaling his acceptance of his worst defeat ever in his entire boxing career! Manny “Pacman” Paquiao literally ended Morales career, it was like giving your employee his separation and retirement benefit and Pacman is the signatory!
It was a sweet victory for team Paquiao; never did they foresee the possibility of an early knockout, if I may rephrase the tag line of a known telecommunication company here in the Philippines – “sa pinoy posible!” or should I say “basta si Manny posible!”