THOSE five beer drinkers must have felt it was the drinking ses­sion of a lifetime. Why, because they had for a beer mate Manny Pacquiao as all six of them were official guests of San Miguel Beer Brewery presi­dent Roberto N. Huang. If one drinks beer alone, either that dude is a loner or plain nuts – or wishes to drown away some wounds too difficult perhaps to lick.

Surely, those five drinkers beating over 6,000 hopefuls to be with Pacquiao had the time of their lives at the Executive Dining Room of San Miguel Corporation head office along San Miguel Ave. in Mandaluyong. They were Reynald Pandan of Sasa in Davao City, Jay Punzalan (Quezon City), Joel Gabo (Puerto Princesa), Art dela Cruz (Manila) and Mark Glodoviza (Navotas), who topped the nationwide “Wala Kang Katulad” SMB promo to be with Pacquiao. They fired away questions at Pacquiao. The one that stood out was, “What round will you knock Marquez out?”
Pacman replied, also in Taga­log: “If you were me, what round would you pick?”

“Between the fifth and eighth rounds,” was the answer. Pacquiao just smiled. By tra­dition, he does not make predic­tions.

And, speaking of the Pacquiao­Marquez fight on Nov. 13 (Manila Time) in Las Vegas, the “instant replay” rule will be in effect as approved by the Nevada Athletic Commission. Meaning, if a fight suddenly ends due to “a foul or a stop­page” arising possibly from either an illegal or accidental blow, the instant TV replay can guide the referee in making a decision.

If the referee sees in the TV re­play an illegal blow as intentional, the boxer at fault may lose by dis­qualification. An accidental blow would decide the fight’s outcome through the scorecards. This second trilogy for Pac­quiao (he beat Erik Morales, 2-1, in 2005-‘06 – 2 successive KOs after a points loss in Fight One) is being seen as a classic this early. Yes, Pacquiao is favored to defeat Marquez, but he must win convincingly this time after he merely extracted a split decision victory in 2008 following a draw in their first bout in 2004. Already, the five-month wait is killing both Jon Hernandez and Valentin Dakuykoy.

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