By Ronnie Nathanielsz
Bobby Pacquiao, younger brother of Filipino ring idol Manny Pacquiao lost his Continental Americas super featherweight title when he failed to make the weight for his fight against Mexican journeyman Hector Velasquez and made things worse for himself when he was disqualified in the dying seconds of the eleventh round after a series of low blows.
Top Ran promoter Bob Arum in an overseas telephone conversation with Viva Sports/Manila Standard Today said he was disappointed that Pacquiao was as much as three pounds overweight and wanted to know what his trainers were doing. "Its most unprofessional" he said.
Pacquiao's manager and close friend of elder brother Manny said his fighter was "leading all the way and the disqualification was a pity." Salud said he would talk to Arum "to ask for a rematch because it was a good fight." Salud said he couldnt understand why Bobby who had been training at the Wild Card Gym for two months and had Freddie Roach and Justin Fortune in his corner was overweight.
However, Salud offered an explanation during an overseas telephone conversation with the Manila Standard. He said "they were all focused on Manny and didn't watch him (Bobby.)"
The fight took place at the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas and was a crucial stepping stone for Pacquiao’s quest to gain recognition and possibly a future world title shot. Two judges had Pacquiao ahead on their scorecards at the time of the stoppage with Nathan Palmer turning in a 95-93 margin and Chuck Giampa 94-93 despite the deductions. C.J. Ross, on the other hand scored it for Velasquez 94-93. Pacquiao dropped to 27-12-3 with 12 knockouts while Velasquez improved to 46-11-2 with 32 KO’s.
Ironically, the camp of Manny Pacquiao, particularly trainer Freddie Roach in whose Wild Card Gym Bobby trained, have been harping on Morales’ weight problems prompting the peeved Mexican to tell Roach not to worry about his weight but to worry about his fighter’s weight.
Velasquez who had been demolished in six rounds in a tune-up fight against Manny Pacquiao prior to the Filipino’s rematch with Morales, was dropped by an uppercut in the third round but fought back towards the end of the round to rock Pacquiao who was also deducted a point for a low blow.
In round five referee Kenny Bayless deducted another point from Pacquiao for a low blow and warned Pacquiao in the tenth round for another low blow. Pacquiao failed to heed the warning and when he caught Velasquez with a low blow in the dying seconds of round eleven, Bayless had no hesitation in disqualifying Pacquiao. The unfortunate result was compounded by the fact that Pacquiao was leading on the scorecards of two of the three judges when he was disqualified at 2:56 of the eleventh round.
