Pacquiao's win no masterclass

MANNY Pacquiao celebrates his 35th birthday next month, and his customary lavish party can go ahead as usual, thanks to a landslide points victory over Brandon Rios at the weekend.

The mood at last year's event was soured by the brutal knockout defeat he suffered against Juan Manuel Marquez just nine days before it was held.

One year on, and with another candle set to go on the Filipino's cake, some pundits are claiming that he is back to his best after thoroughly outboxing the game, but limited, Rios in Macau.

However, this performance was no masterclass - the kind that dazzled Oscar de la Hoya into submission five years ago.

Above anything else, it lacked the punctuation of a stoppage win that seemed well within his grasp, and that Pacquiao used to relish delivering.

The demons of that stunning sixth-round loss to Marquez - which left him face down and unconscious in Las Vegas - clearly still haunt the Philippines' sporting icon, and understandably so.

He has swopped relentlessness for reticence, diluting the dynamic essence that propelled him through eight weight divisions with such alarming ferocity.

Some will say it is a natural, intelligent, adjustment as his career navigates the final phase.

But perhaps Pacquiao has simply lost his edge because of that lights-out looting.

He smiles and tells us it doesn't matter but, deep down, he knows he is vulnerable in a way he never understood before.

Already a millionaire, and with his place in boxing history long assured, perhaps he keeps going for his people, who adore him and also turned out in huge numbers in Macau to show their support.

One Filipino told me he didn't want a typhoon to define his country, he simply wanted Pacquiao to be the face of his proud nation again.

Around the world, for one day at least, that wish came true.

Many Pinoys, working so far from their home and families, created an electric atmosphere that was highly charged but never threatening. He is their hero and, you feel, they are his too.

But boxing is not a sport awash with sentiment, and talk has quickly turned again to a fight with Floyd Mayweather, who would represent the most difficult challenge of Pacquiao's entire career.

"Pac-Man" is certainly in less of a position to win that contest than he was four years ago when the public's thirst for it gathered momentum.

After Marquez had flattened Pacquiao with his perfectly-timed left hand, the Filipino said that he had simply accepted it as a part of boxing and moved on. But it appears that he is now unwilling to accept that knocking someone else out is a part of boxing too.

Ever humble and respectful outside the ring, Pacquiao has also become too nice inside the ropes, dulling the skills that fired him to the top. He was content to cruise to a triumph on the scorecards against Rios rather than finish him as soon as the opportunity presented itself, and has now failed to stop any of his last seven opponents. Getting knocked out by Marquez only added an extra dimension, full of doubt, to the equation.

Rios allowed Pacquiao to move constantly to the right, only cutting him off once, in the third, when he stepped across as Pacquiao skirted along the ropes to catch him with a left hook. Mayweather's fans will have watched that scenario with interest.

They will also have noted that Pacquiao's hand-speed remains a fearsome asset, and that he prefers to fire punches in short bursts rather than maintain pressure.

The Filipino's excellent footwork - arguably his strongest point - still gives him options that will always be too much for straightforward sluggers like Rios. But will all of those attributes - shorn of the will to impose his destructive power - be enough against Mayweather or even in rematches with Timothy Bradley or Marquez? It doesn't seem like it.

Sunday's unconvincing display has provoked only more questions instead of the answers we were looking for - answers that we may only know by the time Pacquiao's birthday in 2015 rolls around.

jturner@sph.com.sg

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