Post
by Gilmore » Wed Jul 12, 2017 6:48 am
Manny's early career was rather interesting. He won his first world title as a flyweight, by knocking out Chartchai late in the fight, after the Thai had established an unassailable points lead.
According to Rick, certain Filipino members of Manny's entourage were constantly trying to shaft him as trainer during the lead up. They even accused him of colluding with Chartchai, when he spoke to the Thai at the pre-fight press conference. Rick was also the Asia correspondent for Ring magazine and had interviewed Chartchai previously. He simply said hello and expressed the hope for a great fight.
After the fight, Manny followed the advice of his Pinoy brethren and dumped Rick in favour of one of them. In his first title defence, against a lesser known Thai, who fought under the name of Y2K Battery, Manny lost his title when he failed to make the weight. The bout went ahead and Manny was knocked out in the first round, apparently weakened by last minute crash dieting in a failed attempt to meet the weight limit.
He then lost again to a relatively weaker opponent and was heading towards obscurity, until taken over by his current American trainer, Freddie Roach. In his first fight with Freddie, a prelim to a big bout in Vegas, he TKO'd a South African No. 1 contender in a huge upset and the rest is history.