Pacquiao Watch: What if Manny loses?

Filipino boxing fans have grown accustomed to seeing Manny Pacquiao win his fights and many see the 2005 loss to Erik Morales as a thing of the distant past.

Yet along with Morales and Juan Manuel Marquez, Shane Mosley possesses the skill set that could upend Pacquiao’s incredible winning streak.

Pacquiao however is facing a diminishing Mosley on Sunday – a rung or two behind the prime Morales and Marquez when the Filipino boxing icon battled them at the featherweight classes.

But although Mosley has slowed down over the last two years, he is still the fastest and the sturdiest welterweight Manny Pacquiao will ever face. Mosley has never lost a fight in a devastating manner. In fact, he has never been stopped. In all of his six losses, he was totally dominated only by Floyd Mayweather Jr but not before giving him the biggest scare of his life in the second round.

Manny is in the prime of his career and is now the best fighter on the planet. It will take a monumental Pacquiao collapse for Mosley to score the biggest upset in marquee boxing since Buster Douglas, a 40-1 underdog, knocked the senses out of Mike Tyson 21 years ago.

But what if Mosley defies father time and conventional wisdom?

What will be the landscape of boxing if he beats Manny Pacquiao in a decisive manner that leaves no doubt about the final outcome?

If there is anybody who will be happiest in a Pacquaio defeat to Mosley, it would be Mayweather. It will reinforce his self-belief that he is the best fighter out there. It will justify and solidify his refusal to fight Pacquiao.

A Mosley win will throw a wrench in the pound for pound rankings and it will rob Top Rank’s Bob Arum of his biggest cash cow.

It will radically alter Pacquiao’s future boxing career path and start the end of his reign as pound for pound king and eventually dry up the well of fortune for the greatest Filipino boxer ever.

A loss to Mosley will also finally give all anti-Pacquiao forces the opportunity to bash the Filipino boxing icon.

You just can’t imagine the countless stream of diagnosis and prognosis of a post-Pacquiao boxing reign after a decisive Mosley defeat. But you can be sure how fast his coterie and army of sycophants disappear into the oblivion.

It may also spell doom for Pacquiao’s future political ambitions. Those who are egging him to run for president in the Philippines will surely have the biggest disappointment of their lives.

And who will win biggest if Pacquiao loses to Mosley and eventually fades away from the boxing limelight? It will be wife Jinky and Manny’s five (?) kids. They will finally have family.

It will also be his constituents in Sarangani who will finally get to know Pacquiao, their congressman. And Pacquiao himself who will finally realize that there is no more Mt. Everest left to conquer in the world of boxing. For regardless of an unlikely loss to Mosley, Manny’s rightful place in the storied world of boxing has already been etched long before he even considered fighting Mosley.

But a Mosley win may only be a wishful thinking.

Source: asiancorrespondent.com