TOP RANK PROMOTION BACKS PACQUIAO

Bob Arum and Top Rank impressively put together that rarest of commodities last Saturday – a pay per view card that was actually worth the investment. The event, “Blaze of Glory,” was designed to feature international superstar Manny Pacquiao, which it did quite splendidly, but unlike most showcase PPV’s this one was entertaining from top to bottom.

Pacquiao was not at his peak on this occasion against Mexican Jorge Solis, who got the call because he was among the coalition of the willing and available. More ambitious options, such as the Marco Antonio Barrera debacle, had gone belly up for assorted reasons. Solis entered the ring at 32-0-2 (22), ranked #9 by Ring Magazine at featherweight, and moving up one division was a 7-1 underdog. Still the Pac-Man, even diluted, was more than up to the task of taking out Solis, who according to my notes showed fear in his eyes as early as between rounds after the opening frame.

Both men missed punches frequently throughout the fight. Manny landed 140 punches at a 27% connect rate. Solis was particularly dismal in this area, finding the mark on only 63 shots at an 18% clip. A clash of heads in the sixth gave Pacquiao a cut over his left eye and seemed to rally the superstar from that point forward.

By the eighth and final round, Manny was in complete control. Despite an almost four inch height advantage Solis landed but 20 jabs in the fight, and when Pacquiao made his lightning quick moves to attack, it was almost as if Solis was frozen to the canvas. Manny put Jorge down for a nine count in the eighth with a left uppercut, then followed with a straight right and a left and referee Vic Drakulich counted 10 over the fallen Solis.

We’ll return to Manny later, but we would be remiss if we neglected to mention the other thrilling bouts on this card.

The televised portion of the show began with a spirited battle between Edgar Sosa and Brian Viloria for the vacant WBC light flyweight title. Viloria was ranked number one by the WBC, Sosa number two. Interestingly, the winner was to fight Omar Nino, the former titlist who defeated and drew in two fights with Viloria last year but tested positive for Methamphetimines after their second fight and was stripped of the title. Go figure.

Viloria, known as “The Hawaiian Punch,” and Sosa engaged in a highly entertaining pitched battle with Sosa coming out on top by majority decision, 114-114, and 115-113 (twice). The once highly touted Viloria, who failed to enter the winner’s circle for the fourth fight in a row, was dominated in the 12th round with the fight on the line and was bruised and battered at the end.

It’s difficult enough for a light flyweight to get TV time, and one with a four fight winless streak has got to be running out of big time opportunities. Sosa on the other hand was brilliant, outlanding Viloria 233-155 and looking every bit the titlist that he now is.

Welterweight Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. once again showed the benefit of being an icon’s legacy as he parlayed another TV appearance against soft competition into a second round TKO over Anthony Shuler. Aside from his name, of course, it’s always beneficial to have Junior fill some time on a PPV card because after he beats up tomato cans such as Shuler we get to see the proud papa, Chavez Sr., in the ring to congratulate his big boy and the crowd goes crazy. Sorry, I’m just not sold on Junior yet.

In the co-feature, Cristian Mijares successfully and spectacularly defended his WBC super flyweight title by brutally pummeling Jorge “El Travieso” Arce over 12 rounds, winning a unanimous decision, 119-109, 118-110, and 117-111, and it wasn’t even that close. It was a bad night for guys named Jorge.

Arce, who last lost to Hall of Famer Michael Carbajal in 1999, ended the fight a bloody mess, bleeding profusely from cuts on his left eye and nose. The 25 year old Mijares, a slick, southpaw master boxer boxed circles around Arce for the entire fight using surprising, (at least to Arce), hand speed and movement to fire off sharp combinations. “El Travieso” became “El Travesty,” made to look like a rank amateur.

Check out these stats: Mijares landed 437 of 891 punches, a 49% rate. Arce was 132-909, an abysmal 15%. Mijares outjabbed Arce 236-16. Ouch.

The slaughter sort of put the kibosh on any future Arce mega-fights for the time being. You’ve got to figure that if Hussein Hussein and Mijares left Arce looking as if he was in a head on collision with a freight train, Vic Darchinyan would have him for lunch. On the other hand, Mijares might have just the right style to give Darchinyan some problems.

Okay, now for some random observations:

* The promotion was close to flawless. If there is any criticism it would be to add high def for $44.95. But, on a more positive note, at least we didn’t pay for entertainment and still have to endure house commercials about upcoming programming as is the practice elsewhere.

* I was amazed at how organized and well orchestrated the show was. There was hardly any down time between fights.

* The announcing team of Al Bernstein, Wally Mathews, and Genaro “Chicanito” Hernandez did an excellent job. Former two time super featherweight titlist Hernandez is already better than a couple of high profile analysts that I won’t name because you already know who they are. Mathews has been simply terrific in his work with Versus, providing timely, insightful observations, always well articulated. Bernstein is very good as the analyst for Showtime Championship Boxing but I’ve always felt that his true niche was as a blow by blow guy. Bernstein is never overbearing or pretentious, calls the fight the way it is and doesn’t sell out. He’s just Al, and listening to his account is like sitting on the sofa with your best buddy who knows the sport inside and out.

*Diane Gonzales, who sang the National Anthem, must have really missed the other members of her singing group. The woman used more keys than a locksmith. I can only imagine what Simon Cowell would have said.

*For a moment when Mathews was interviewing Pacquiao after the fight, it seemed as if the audio was hacked by Pacquiao’s Filipino congressional opponent, Darlene Antonio-Custodio, with the voices coming in over the live transmission.

*Solis told the media after the fight that his wife hits harder than Pacquiao. What weight class is she in? In that case, shouldn’t his defense have been better?

*To draw almost 15,000 to the Alamodome after some recent box office failures such as Barrera-Marquez and Vazquez-Marquez is a tribute to both the Pacquiao star power and to the entire Top Rank operation. Ticket prices were set reasonably, ranging from a top price of $300 to $35, a good deal by today’s standards. Why? Because these guys know what they’re doing.

* Manny was introduced as a Philippine congressional candidate, and received a huge ovation. That was a nice touch, handing out those “Vote for Manny” buttons to those Texans and tourists who couldn’t vote for him.

Finally, much was made leading up to the fight about Pacquiao’s problems outside the ring. Actually, the issue of being caught between two feuding promotional companies over his rights is not as big a deal to him as to the promoters. After all, he’s not writing out the checks to all the lawyers assigned to that litigation. When he can earn $2 million plus upside to fight a Jorge Solis while they slug it out in court, he can afford to be patient.

Of course it is to his advantage to have the matter resolved so that he can fight the likes of Juan Manuel Marquez in fights that could potentially bring him $5-7 million in purse money, but Manny is the big draw out there and sooner or later the big fights will have to come to him. He’s the star, and title or not he could still make money if he was fighting Clay Aiken.

As for Manny’s congressional run, I can’t see any good coming out of it for him. He is a hero to his countrymen as The Conqueror. If he loses the election some of his aura of invincibility will be blemished just as badly as if he lost a couple of fights in a row. If he wins, there will be some that will say that he has allowed himself to be the pawn of President Gloria Arroyo, and that the power brokers will drag Manny down to their level.

In any case, Manny the civilian ex-fighter could well learn the lessons of so many American celebrities whose star has burned out over the years. They love you when you’re on top but forget you fast when you no longer have anything to offer.

NOTE… In last Thursday’s column, we wrote that Dennis Rappaport issued a “press release” regarding the aborted Oleg Maskaev-Vitali Klitschko fight. That was in error. It should have read that the information was obtained from “published reports.” We regret the error.