Why Pacquiao was not in his element during the Pacquiao-Bradley fight? The Heel did it.

Manny Pacquaiao wasn't in his element during the Pacquiao-Bradley fight, that is a certainty. The killer Pacman was not the same Pacman which we all saw, marvelled and idolized in previous fights. In one phrase, this is how I describe the Pacman during this fight---the Pacman without the fangs.


No hunger. No thirst for glory. The Pacman I saw was a shell. The Pacman I always idolized was a young Simba. There is no more reason for him to fight. The warrior in him has been decisively tamed.


Pacman was suffering from a slight physical injury prior to the fight. His heel was sore. That explains why Pacman was not even one third as fast as he was in previous fights. 


And because he cannot run, Pacman wasn't able to follow up his strong punches against Bradley because he was hurting down there, in his heel. The swiftness which he patented in boxing was just a shadow. Yes, his jabs were still lightning fast, but his followups were just shadows.


Without his patented swiftness, that also affected the power of his punches. Pacquiao was unleashing tremendous punches, but nary the stings of previous ones. Remember that a boxer gets power from the ground up. How can the Pacman do that when his heel is sore? This explains why Pacman's punches lack the killer sting which previously he used against Hatton, dela Hoya and others.


Two things which his punches were as soft as cotton candy--one, the hunger to win was not there and two, he cannot pull off the power from the ground up due to his heel.


Because he cannot move the way he wanted to, the Pacman wasn't able to deliver that patented series of jabs and punches to score effectively against Bradley. Bradley knew this. That's why he throws, and throws those punches just to score. Since most of their encounters were brawls, those punches connected. This explains why Bradley was able to score more points against the Pacman.


The lesson here is simple---Pacman must be made to realize that he is fighting now for glory, not for money. When you are fighting for glory, you are hungrier and more determined to win. The Pacman whom we saw in this latest caper, is a Pacman already who made peace with his Maker, someone who contemplates on retiring and enjoying the sun as a Congressman or a Saranggani governor.


This is the downside which we all expected when we gave our national treasure to the wiles of politics---we lost a great boxer.


I am sure that come November 15, there would be a different Pacman out there in the ring--more determined to finish off his opponents in an earlier time, hungrier, more of the killer Pacman whom we were expecting but never saw, during this previous fight.