THE three-round exhibition match between Manny Pacquiao and Japanese kickboxing king Rukiya Anpo last Sunday night in Saitama, Japan was supposed to be a dress rehearsal for the Pinoy boxing icon’s possible crack at American World Boxing Council welterweight champ Mario Barrios.
Instead, before a packed crowd of 40,000 at the Saitama Super Arena, the bout exposed chinks in the armor of the 45-year-old Filipino fighter, who was put on the defensive from the opening bell by the young, crafty and lanky hometown bet.
Banking on his height and reach, Anpo used a mix of potent left jabs and occasional right straights to hurt the battle-scarred Pinoy ring icon, who appeared a step slow in responding to the barrage of the surprising Japanese.
Coming out of a three-year retirement since his last professional fight, has Father Time finally caught up with Pacquiao? It definitely appeared so.
The match, in which Pacquiao reportedly received a seven-figure income in dollars from Rizin promoter Noboyuki Sakikabara, was declared a “draw.” But armchair pundits believe the result was more of a show of kindness to Pacquiao than anything else.
Certainly, it was not the performance one would expect from a boxer who aims to challenge Barrios, who is just as young and tall as Anpo and boasts a record of 29 wins, 18 by knockout, against two losses.
“I’m okay,” Pacquiao told reporters after the match, his face looking battered and bruised from Anpo’s punishment, adding he was only fighting at “60 percent” capacity.
He said that Anpo’s height posed a big problem for him and that he would “fight in a real fight this year,” although the Barrios camp might have second thoughts about his lackluster display against the Japanese.
Anpo said Pacquiao’s punches did not faze him, saying through an interpreter that “the punches (from Pacman) weren’t particularly heavy, so I thought it was as expected.”
Even rising US star Ryan Garcia, who went to Japan to woo Pacquiao into fighting him, said the former eight-division world champion may be past his prime.
“Obviously, he’s (Pacquiao’s) past his prime. But he still has some bright spots, and his defense wasn’t good today. It’s hard to say, but I grew up watching him, so…” the former WBC interim lightweight champ said.
Other ring pundits criticized Pacquiao’s performance.
“For much of his three-round exhibition bout Sunday at the Saitama Super Arena in Japan, Manny Pacquiao looked like the befuddled B-side and kickboxer Rukiya Anpo looked like the boxing legend playing with his opponent. “It was that bad,” Paul Magno of boxingnews.co said.
“Simply put, the 45-year-old Pacquiao has no business fighting anymore. If money is an issue, then maybe the future first-ballot Hall of Famer needs to scale back his lifestyle.
Because, nope, boxing is no longer an option,” Magno added.
“Based on his (Pacquiao’s) efforts in the ring on Sunday, the WBC could not justify giving Pacquiao the opportunity,” echoed Phil Jay of worldboxingnews.net, who had earlier supported a Pacquiao-Barrios faceoff.
“Anpo, for his worth, did all that was asked of him and used all his ring advantages to stop the ‘Pac-Man’ in his tracks. At times, Anpo battered the older, slower, and smaller Pacquiao and deserved to get the verdict,” Jay stressed.
