Value for Manny?

The reputation of world boxing came under intense scrutiny within the UK after Saturday night’s farcical Pay-per-View heavyweight world title fight between David Haye and Audley Harrison.

Nearly 800,000 people paid their £15 to be disappointed by a non-event. With the challenger Harrison only landing one punch in the three rounds that the fight lasted, Haye retained his title in the one sided affair many had predicted and theyy could be forgiven for letting their belief of the sport waver.

However, faith was restored hours later in Texas, USA, 4000 miles away from the disappointment that was ‘the Best of Enemies’ at the M.E.N. arena in Manchester. The controversial Mexican Antonio Margarito, who had previously been banned, fought one of the greats of the game, Manny Pacquiao, for the vacant WBC Super welterweight belt on Sky TV. The checkered background of Margarito, who had fought Shane Mosely nearly two years ago with suspect taping similar to ‘plaster of Paris’ underneath his gloves, marred the pre-bout hype but failed to detract from an epic contest.

The Philippine was relentless in his pursuit of yet another crown. He cut Margarito under the right eye early on and proceeded to inflict flurry upon flurry of tremendous combinations that left his larger opponent chasing shadows. The Mexican was valiant though and not once did he get knocked down by the Pacman’s supreme punching power. It was fierce and, at times, brutal, but Margarito was brave and certainly gave Pacquiao something to think about when dictating the centre of the ring.

Pacquiao and his trainer Freddie Roach had predicted an eighth round stoppage. The eighth came and went much to the astonishment of the 50,000 plus crowd. The ‘fighting congressman’ as he’s known has a great record against higher profile Mexicans including Oscar De La Hoya, Juan Manuel Marquez and Marco Antonio Barrera and it’s arguable that none of them have made him work so hard.

With vision obviously an issue, Margarito stumbled on looking for the killer blow, but it never came. Pacquiao had delivered a boxing master class despite admitting he came in to the fight ‘underprepared’. His jab and move, evading tactics were an art form.

He was awarded a unanimous points decision to claim his sixth world title at yet another weight, after starting out incredibly as a flyweight.

The British public were fleeced in to paying for a fight that was a joke contest and many will have missed a truly great spectacle the other side of the Atlantic.

David Haye must now surely fight one of the Klitschsko brothers in an attempt to unify the weight division for the sake of heavyweight boxing.

Manny Pacquiao must now surely fight Floyd Mayweather Jr. for the sake of boxing as a sport.