Filipinos rejoiced at boxing hero winning in Las Vegas

Many Filipinos were rejoiced early Sunday afternoon at the winning of a boxing match between their national hero Manny Pacquiao and Erik Morales, a Mexican challenger to the featherweight world champion.

Pacquiao knocked out Morales in the 10th round of the super featherweight fight in the main event of "The Battle" Saturday night U.S. eastern time in Las Vegas, Nevada.

From cozy living rooms of the rich to slum areas all over the Philippine, people watched intensively the fight on delayed TV broadcast.

A few thousands of citizens filled selected theaters in Metro Manila and several other cities in the country to watch the fight on big screens. The main roads of cities seemed almost empty while the match was going on.

President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo watched the fight on TV. She and her administration congratulated Pacquiao for his victory in a statement.

Pacquiao served as an example that Filipinos can compete at the international level, Arroyo said.

With the whole nation's witness, the 27-year-old Pacquiao won the commercial match and pocketed 2 million U.S. dollars for the fight while the Mexican got 3 million. Both fighters will get a cut of the pay-per-view revenue.

Not since Pacquiao and Morales fought last year has a single event drawn greater interest among a nation hungry for sports heroes.

In their first fight, Pacquiao lost by a unanimous decision of the judges after he suffered a head hit in the fifth round.

Pacquiao was raised in General Santos City, southern Philippines, by a mother who washed clothes for a living.

In Nov. 2003, Pacquiao broke into the world limelight with a stunning 11th round knockout of another Mexican legend, Marco Antonio Barrera. That brought Pacquiao into instant fame and a place in the elite list of the world's best boxers.

Source: Xinhua