A night to remember

It was a special Saturday night. A night of boxing fever with four top bouts across two continents. It was a 'judgment night' in many contexts.

But the top card was Filipino Manny Pacquiao's clash with Mexican-born American Oscar de la Hoya in Las Vegas and it proved the best of the four though Amir Khan's annihilation of Oisin Fagan in just two rounds a few hours earlier in London was equally enthralling.

In the other bouts, Carl Froch decisively out-pointed Jean Pascal while Enzo Maccarinelli gave his heavyweight career a flying start by beating Matthew Ellis in just two rounds.

These bouts followed Joe Calzaghe's inspiring run in the ring. The Welshman deservingly picked up the 2007 BBC Sports Personality award and celebrated it by beating Roy Jones Jr by a unanimous decision a couple of weeks ago.

Boxing seems to be back at centre stage again and equal credit for it should go to Pacquiao and Calzaghe. If these two are the reigning stalwarts of the ring, Amir Khan looks all set to rule the sport in the near future.

Pacquiao was amazing in battering De la Hoya. It was a stunning result and can be rated between six and seven on the Ritcher scale of boxing. The American was taller, heavier and certainly went into the bout as a clear favourite on his home turf.

The Filipino, on the other hand, was the clear underdog and in untested waters so to say. But the way he fought his way around was awe-inspiring. I did not watch the full bout, but the few clips shown on TV news channels were enough to draw clear conclusions as to who was superior on the night.

Amir's victory over Fagan was equally emphatic. The particular TV clip I saw provided only a glimpse of what I consider the British boxer's unlimited talent. The combinations of his punches, the furious energy and unrelenting aggression stirred memories of a famous bygone era.

Coming back to Pacquiao. He has rare talent and I cannot remember another Filipino dominating any sport the way this boxer has done. Maybe Lydia de Vega-Mercado comes the closest to matching Pacquaio for sporting heroics.

Diay, as she is fondly called by her compatriots, was a lissome athlete and a champion sprinter in the middle 80s. The Flying Filipino was a worthy challenger to India's Payolli Express P T Usha. The two made the 100m and 200m events a dashing affair before Usha moved on to middle-distance.

Diay won the 100m gold in the 1982 New Delhi Asiad and repeated the feat in 1986 in Seoul. She also ran in two Olympics - in Los Angeles in 1984 and Seoul four years later.

Pacquiao has been equally dominant since he arrived on the boxing horizon. And by beating De la Hoya in his own backyard, he has reached the summit of his sport. The bruises on the face of the American and the big smile on that of the Filipino were self-explanatory.

It was supposed to be the other way round as many boxing purists had suggested. It was termed a 'circus' and a 'farce' though the promoters of the bout had branded it to be the 'Dream Match' between the five-foot-six Pacquiao and the five-foot-10 De la Hoya.

But Pacquiao clearly had other ideas. His judgment of going all out right from the start proved decisive in the ultimate analysis. "That's what we were working on every day in the gym - speed," admitted the triumphant boxer later. "Speed was going to be the key to this fight."

De la Hoya was stunned into submission and as the beaten boxer himself admitted he was powerless. "I felt empty, without power. I tried to go forward but his leg speed and movement didn't allow me to connect with anything," said the American with brutal honesty.

Such admissions are rare in sports, particularly in boxing where the protagonists don't hesitate to bite each other's ears off. But by admitting defeat and hailing his conqueror De la Hoya has set a shinning example ... not only for boxing but also for giving Pacquiao his due credit.