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For Pacquiao, Restoring the Ferocity and Passion Will Be Tall Order
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Getting his first stoppage win since 2009 will be no small feat for Pacquiao against such a defensive wizard as Marquez. (Chris Farina–Top Rank)
What Manny Pacquiao will we see on Dec. 8? The Manny of old? Or the older Manny, the guy we've seen the last couple of fights, still an ace, but not the ace of a few fights back, still fast, and sharp, but not as fast and as sharp as we'd become accustomed to?
Juan Manuel Marquez is hoping that the Pacquiao who drew boos several times during his dreary dance with Shane Mosley, the Pacquiao who wasn't as much the master of the dart and destroy strategy in his third fight with JMM, the Pacquiao whose volume and killer instinct weren't in top form against Tim Bradley in June is in the ring facing off with him at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas.
Trainer Freddie Roach and Team Pacquiao and the Pacmaniacal fans the world over and the Congressman himself hope that the guy who masterfully got angles on his opponents and then tattooed them is back, that the almost 34 year old Filipino can arrest the slide into superb rather than spectacular mode.
Conventional wisdom, if we allow it to seep through, if we don't allow our fondness for the once whirling dervish to overwhelm our powers of reasoning, if we don't over-listen to the part of our brains that most wants what is best for boxing here and now–a re-born Pacquiao– tells us it is a tall order. Maybe an impossible one, in fact…
Back in September, we heard trainer Freddie Roach say that he put out an APB for the “old” Pacquiao, the destruct and destroy version, who retired Oscar De La Hoya, sent Ricky Hatton to the hammock, broke down Miguel Cotto and dissected Antonio Margarito. “Manny has shown Marquez too much respect in the past two fights,” Dedham Freddie said. “Manny told me he knows he needs a knockout. He's never said that before. My job is to reignite the killer instinct Manny has lacked in (his) fights with Marquez.” Pacquiao echoed that mindset. “I need to be more aggressive in this fight,” Pacquiao said. “I want a win that isn't close like the last three. It has to be a decisive victory. I want to erase the last fight and any doubts in No. 4. I will focus this time. I have to study and train using new techniques and strategy, and apply techniques never used in my previous fights. I will fight and train like the old Manny, the 25-year-old Manny.”
And I have no doubt he has the best of intentions, that he believes that he can rekindle the 2009 fire. But what the brain and the heart believe, and what the body can handle, can be two different deals.
Trainer Roach spoke about Manny's born-again status before the Bradley fight. He said that the focus on Godstuff wouldn't keep Manny from being a killer in the ring. “I worried at first,” Roach told me, when I asked if the all-in religious Manny wouldn't be a softy. “I wanted to see his work ethic. He still beats the s–t out of me. He says “sorry,” and hits me again. I was a little worried about that, not wanting to hurt people, but it's the oldest sport in the world. Maybe God was into boxing too. I'm not worried at all about him being soft, he's the same fighter, just no more distractions and vices… except for Bible, and that's a pretty good vice in my book.”
Roach told me a little bit ago that Manny has lost some killer instinct, a large part because of his heavier immersion into Christianity, and a bit because of age. It will be interesting to see if on Dec. 8, we see post 2009 Manny, or indeed Roach can scrub some of the lovey-dovey out of Manny, and inject some devilishness into him, some ruthlessness. I'm inclined to say that what some see as a lessening of ferociousness in recent fights is in fact less of a mental issue, to be blamed on the faith-flurry, and is more of an aging issue. Pacquiao used to be able to put combos together in rapid fire, get angles, go rat-a-tat, and then slide out. Now, the reflexes and stamina have diminished some; it's not that he doesn't want to take the other guys' block off, it's that he can't. Or can he? I asked Teddy Atlas, the ESPN analyst and sometimes trainer, well known for his ability to motivate fighters, to lead them to a particular mental state that best serves them on fightnight, if Pacquiao's “ferociousness quotient” can be tweaked for this fourth Marquez fight. Can Manny muster more meanness, Teddy?
“No,” he said, succinctly. “He got to where he is in life, and he's in a comfortable place. The urgency to take the other guys' head off, to fight with that mindset, those things don't seem to be there anymore. He's made millions, he's an icon. Being successful can comfort you, and it's good in most places, but not the ring. You become too content.”
So Atlas believes that once you have climbed the mountain, once, twice, the desire to get to the peak again is reduced, and you don't grab for those footholds with the same tenacity. “The little things, the extra things, they're no longer as important,” Atlas said. “That urgency, that mandate, is not there. When you're younger, you're not on the map.”
So, can a trainer re-instill the fury? “Roach has had a bad patch with Pacquiao,” Atlas said. “He's fighting a guy who counterpunches. He has to plan for that. Get Manny emotionally and spiritually ready. His part is in reminding him of his legacy. That's what I'd do. No matter how good his conditioning is, how much effort he gives in the ring, unless he fights with passion, drive and desire….”
A problem could be that perhaps Pacquiao is already secure in his legacy. I think his place in the game is pretty well set. All those titles, all those weight classes. If he can't turn back the clock, physically, or mentally, and he loses to Marquez, and, perish the thought but it must be considered, hangs up the gloves on or around his 34th birthday, on Dec. 17, Manny's Hall of Fame plaque will be ready for him in 2017. He is on the map, and has to know his foothold for the ages is deep.
Readers, I confess, I'd be surprised if Manny was able to much more against Marquez on Dec. 8 than he did in their previous two bouts. Age and some inevitable softening that comes from not having as burning a desire to climb the mountain conspire against him. What say you…Can Pacquiao get back to being a badass, or will Marquez finally snag that victory that he believes has been unfairly denied him? Weigh in, in our Forum.
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Gene Hackman’s Involvement in Boxing Went Deeper than that of a Casual Fan
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“Of all the celebrities I’ve met, he’s probably my favorite. He’s just an average guy.” So said Michael Nunn during his heyday as a world middleweight champion. It was an observation echoed by Nunn’s trainer Joe Goossen. “He’s not really what you would expect a superstar actor to be,” said Goossen. “He doesn’t think he’s a star. He thinks he’s just an actor.”
They were talking about Academy Award winning actor Gene Hackman who was found dead in his sprawling Santa Fe, New Mexico, home yesterday (Feb. 26) along with his wife of 34 years, the classical pianist Betsy Arakawa, and one of their two German shepherds. Hackman was 95 years old. No foul play is suspected.
People forget how good Michael Nunn was in his prime. During his 27-month reign as the IBF world middleweight champion, which began in July of 1988 with a seventh-round stoppage of former Olympic gold medalist Frank Tate, Nunn defeated Juan Domingo Roldan, Sumbu Kalambay, Iran Barkley, Marlon Starling, and Donald Curry. His 88-second blast-out of Kalambay was named The Ring magazine’s Knockout of the Year and he was at or near the top of everyone’s Pound-for-Pound list.
Michael Nunn was the jewel of the Ten Goose stable until he pulled up stakes and left one day, returning to Davenport, Iowa, the blue-collar Mississippi River town where he was raised by a single mother in the city’s poorest neighborhood. The name Ten Goose referred to the siblings, the 10 children – eight boys and two girls — of Al and Anna May Goossen. A former Los Angeles police detective who found time to helm the Sherman Oaks (CA) Little League program, Al encouraged his sons to get involved in sports. They all excelled on local sandlots, and three found their way into boxing; Dan as a promoter, Joe as a trainer and a TV boxing pundit, and Patrick as a fighter – he lost to Hector Camacho and Roberto Duran when both were well past their primes and left the sport with a 19-3 record.
Gene Hackman, a regular at the monthly Ten Goose cards at the Reseda Country Club when he wasn’t off somewhere on a movie shoot, became something of a surrogate brother to the Goossen clan. When a Ten Goose fighter such as Michael Nunn or one of the Ruelas brothers was fighting out of town, Hackman would be there if he could fit it into his schedule.
Before making his mark on the big screen, Hackman, a former U.S. Marine, appeared in numerous TV series and on Broadway. Nominated for five Academy Awards, he won Best Actor as “Popeye” Doyle in the “French Connection” (1971) and Best Supporting Actor for his role as the evil Sheriff in the Clint Eastwood Western “Unforgiven.”
“The French Connection,” which also won Best Picture, has the most spectacular chase scene in any movie, a chase between a car, commandeered by “Popeye,” and an elevated subway train in Brooklyn. Hackman’s other credits are too numerous to list, but a personal favorite is “Scarecrow” (1972) where Hackman plays a vagabond recently released from prison, opposite Al Pacino.
Both the late Dan Goossen and Joe Goossen served as technical consultants for several of Gene Hackman’s movies, notably “Split Decisions” (1988). One of Hackman’s lesser films, “Split Decisions,” co-starring Jennifer Beals, is part sports film and part crime drama. Hackman plays a boxing trainer named Danny McGuin.
Another Goossen brother, the late Greg Goossen, served as a stunt double on several of Hackman’s movies and had small speaking roles in 15 Hackman movies. Greg made it to the Major Leagues as a catcher, appearing in 193 games across parts of six seasons, mostly as a back-up with the sorry New York Mets.
Postscript:
Michael Nunn’s title reign ended with a thud on May 10, 1991, when he was stopped in the 11th-round by James Toney. Nunn’s corner, which included Angelo Dundee, threw in the towel after Nunn pulled himself upright on shaky legs after being decked with a thunderous left hook. Nunn, 36-0 heading in, was ahead on the scorecards by margins of 8, 6, and 4 points before the roof fell in on him. Although the 22-year-old Toney also came in undefeated and would go on to carve out a Hall of Fame career, this was a huge upset.
Nunn went on to capture the lineal super middleweight title before leaving the sport with a record of 58-4 (33 KOs). In his final stab at a world title, he lost a split decision to Graciano Rocchigiani in Berlin in a bout for the vacant WBA light heavyweight title, a fight that would be shrouded in controversy, not because it was a terrible decision but because Rocchigiani’s corner was allegedly informed of the score after each round. By then, Michael and Joe Goossen were back together.
The streets from which Michael Nunn escaped eventually reeled him back in. On August 6, 2002, eight months after his final fight, Nunn was arrested by an undercover FBI agent at a Davenport motel. Charged with purchasing cocaine with intent to distribute, he was sentenced to 24 ½ years. The sentence was longer than what prosecutors had recommended. Witnesses testified that Nunn was involved in the drug trade as far back as 1993 and it mattered that Nunn had previous arrests in Davenport for battery on police officers.
Nunn was released in 2019.
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Greg Haugen (1960-2025) was Tougher than the Toughest Tijuana Taxi Driver
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Many years ago, this reporter overhead ring announcer Chuck Hull gushing over a young boxer who was fairly new to the professional game. “This kid,” he said, referencing Greg Haugen, “is another Gene Fullmer.”
Hull, who would be inducted posthumously into the International Boxing Hall of Fame, was very familiar with Fullmer, a boxer he greatly admired. The ring announcer had worked two of Fullmer’s title fights, Gene’s 15-round decision over Sugar Ray Robinson in March of 1961 and his 10th-round stoppage of Benny “Kid” Paret later that year.
There was a stylistic similarity between Haugen and Fullmer, but the comparison went beyond that. When the cognoscenti in New York got their first look at Gene Fullmer, they dismissed him as just another good club fighter. It was preposterous to think that one day he would defeat the great Sugar Ray Robinson, and never mind that Sugar Ray’s best days were behind him. (Fullmer and Robinson fought three times. The middle fight was a 15-round draw. Robinson won the first encounter with a vicious one-punch knockout.)
Likewise, even after recording three consecutive upsets in 10-rounders at the Showboat in Las Vegas, Greg Haugen was considered nothing more than a good club fighter. He had a wealth of grit, one could see, but in the eyes of the so-called experts, he was too one-dimensional. It was far-fetched to think that one day he would defeat an opponent as slick as Hector Camacho, but we are getting ahead of ourselves.
Greg Haugen, who passed away last Saturday (Feb. 22) at age 64 in a Seattle-area hospice after a three-year battle with renal cancer, entered the pro ranks after winning Tough Man competitions in Alaska. A native of Auburn, Washington, his first documented fight was in Anchorage. Each of his first five fights was slated for 10 rounds.
Those three upsets were forged against Freddie Roach, Chris Calvin, and Charlie “White Lightning” Brown. Two more fights at the Showboat would follow preceding a date with IBF 135-pound champion Jimmy Paul at the Caesars Palace Sports Pavilion. A protégé of Emanuel Steward, Paul was a product of Detroit’s fabled Kronk Gym.
Haugen was one of the first boxers to cultivate a cult following on ESPN. This owed partly to his attractive young wife and their two daughters, adorable little girls, who appeared on camera a lot as they cheered him on from their ringside seats. That marriage was crumbling when Haugen caught up with Jimmy Paul, but Greg overcame the distraction and captured the title with a hard-earned, 15-round majority decision. According to an Associated Press report, Haugen supplemented his $50,000 purse by getting a $2,000 advance and betting on himself at 4/1 odds.
Haugen lost the title and suffered his first defeat in his first title defense, a 15-rounder with Vinny Pazienza before a rabid pro-Pazienza crowd in Providence, Rhode Island. The “Pazmanian Devil” won five of the last six rounds on all three scorecards to win a unanimous decision, but ended the battle with his face all marked-up. “Many ringside observers, including the majority of out-of-town press, had Haugen the winner,” wrote Boston Globe boxing columnist Ron Borges.
They fought twice more. Haugen recaptured the belt with a wide 15-round decision in the rematch in Atlantic City and Pazienza emerged victorious in the rubber match, winning a 10-round decision. It was a great rivalry. Aggregating the scorecards after 40 bruising rounds, Haugen nipped it 1141-1136.
Between his second and third meetings with Pazienza, Haugen was outclassed by defensive wizard Pernell Whitaker on Whitaker’s turf in Virginia, but Greg’s days as a world title-holder were not over yet.
On Feb. 23, 1991, fighting at 140 pounds, his more natural weight, Haugen became the first man to defeat Hector Camacho, scoring a split decision over the 38-0 Bronx Puerto Rican who was defending his WBO belt. The match at Caesars Palace would have ended in a draw if not for the fact that referee Carlos Padilla docked Camacho a point for refusing to touch gloves at the start of the final round.
For Haugen, a noted spoiler, it was the biggest upset of his career. In the sports books around town, Camacho was as high as a 10-1 favorite.
The rematch in Reno followed a similar tack; it was a very close fight, but Camacho won a split decision and Haugen’s third world title reign, like his first, ended in his first defense.
Haugen returned to Reno the next year where he ended the career of Ray “Boom Boom” Mancini, stopping the former lightweight title-holder and future Hall of Famer in the seventh frame. And then, after defeating two fourth-rate opponents, he was thrust into the fight for which he is best remembered.
Greg Haugen vs. Julio Cesar Chavez at Mexico City’s Azteca Stadium wasn’t a great fight, but it was a great spectacle. The announced attendance, 132,247, broke the record set in 1926 when 120,557 jammed Philadelphia’s Sesquicentennial Stadium for the first meeting between Jack Dempsey and Gene Tunney.
Those that were there will never forget it. Ring announcer Jimmy Lennon Jr recalled that there were little fires up in the far reaches of the mammoth stadium where people were cooking the food they had brought. “I remember thinking that this was more of a mass celebration than just a sporting event,” reminisced Lennon Jr who compared the event to Woodstock in a conversation with Bernard Fernandez for a story that ran on these pages.
Haugen goosed the gate by saying that Chavez had built his record, reportedly 84-0, on the backs of “Tijuana taxi drivers that my mom could whip.” Chavez took it personally and, to the great jubilation of the great multitude, he punished the American before taking him out in the fifth round.
Other boxers since then, lacking Haugen’s originality, have also demeaned their opponent’s conglomeration of former opponents as a bunch of Tijuana taxi drivers. The term seems to have supplanted “tomato cans” as a term of derision. So, Greg Haugen’s legacy extends beyond what he accomplished in the ring. He left an acorn in the storehouse of American slang.
After being manhandled by Julio Cesar Chavez, Haugen sheepishly said, “They must have been very tough taxi drivers.” He would have 15 more fights before leaving the sport in 1999 with a record of 39-10-2 with 19 KOs. In retirement, he trained a few boxers but couldn’t keep at it after suffering nerve damage in his left arm working the pads with a heavyweight.
There were undoubtedly some very tough guys in the ranks of Tijuana taxi drivers, but in a conventional boxing match, Greg Haugen would have likely whipped them all. He was nowhere as great as the stupefyingly sappy post-mortem tribute that ran in a small Washington paper, but he was tough as nails.
Greg Haugen is survived by four children – two daughters and two sons — and five grandchildren. Speaking to Kevin Iole, his daughter Cassandra Haugen said, “He was a good man with a huge heart. He came from nowhere and made himself into a champion, but he was always a kind-hearted man and just the best Dad.”
We here at TSS send our condolences to his loved ones. May he rest in peace.
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Nakatani, Japan’s Other Superstar, Blows Away Cuellar in the Third Frame
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WBO world bantamweight champion Junto Nakatani continued his steady advance toward a mega-fight with countryman Naoya Inoue at Ariake Arena in Tokyo tonight with a third-round stoppage of David Cuellar.
After two nondescript rounds, the 27-year-old, five-foot-eight southpaw stepped on the gas and scored two knockdowns before Canadian referee Michael Griffin waived it off. The first knockdown was the result of combination of body punches. As soon as Cuellar got to his feet, Nakatani was all over him. Another combination, this time upstairs, knocked Cuellar on his rump. Looking very discouraged, he made a half-hearted attempt to beat the count and almost made it, not that it would have mattered as he was a cooked goose. The official time was 3:04 of round three.
Nakatani (30-0, 23 KOs) was making his third title defense. He trains in LA with TSS 2024 Trainer of the Year Rudy Hernandez. It was the first pro loss for Cuellar (28-1) who hails from the Mexican city of Queretaro and was making his first start outside his native country.
Nakatani has indicated an interest in unifying the belt which potentially portends three more domestic fights as all four pieces of the 118-pound title are currently in the hands of Japanese boxers. “Bam” Rodriguez and former pound-for-pound star “Chocolatito” Gonzalez sit a division below him and may also be in his future, but the big money is in a showdown with Inoue, the undisputed 122-pound champion. That match-up, when it transpires, will be the first all-Japanese fight to arouse the interest of casual boxing fans around the world.
Other Bouts of Note
Super bantamweight Tenshin Nasukawa took a massive step up in class and was successful, scoring a unanimous 10-round decision over Jason Moloney. The scores were 98-92 and 97-93 twice.
The 26-year-old southpaw has made great gains since his embarrassing loss to Floyd Mayweather Jr on New Year’s Eve of 2018. In that match, the baby-faced Nasukawa failed to survive the opening round and left the ring crying. Heading in to that match, framed as a 3-round exhibition, Tenshin was reportedly 46-0 as a kickboxer and rated in some quarters as the best kickboxer of all time.
After only five pro fights compressed into 30 rounds, the WBA saw fit to rank Nasukawa at #2. He could have embarrassed the organization (check that; the WBA has no shame) by getting his butt kicked by Moloney, a former world title-holder, but Nasakawa (6-0, 2 KOs) rose to the occasion and scored his best win to date. A 34-year-old Aussie, Moloney declined to 27-4.
The 12-round contest between bantamweights Seiya Tsutsumi and Daigo Higa was a spirited contest that ended in a draw. The scores were 114-114 across the board.
The 29-year-old Tsutsumi (12-0-3) was making the first defense of the WBA title he won with a 12-round decision over Takuma Inoue (Naoya’s brother). Higa, also 29 and now 21-3-2, was a former WBC flyweight titlist.
Tsutsumi had an uphill battle after suffering a bad gash on his forehead from an accidental clash of heads in the fourth round. The hill got steeper after Higa put him on the canvas with a left hook in round nine. But Tsutsumi responded with a knockdown of his own in that same round and finished strong, seemingly doing enough to retain his title.
This was their second meeting. Their first encounter in October of 2020, a 10-rounder on a club show at historic Korakuen Hall, also ended in a draw.
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