Boxing critics just couldn't stop praising it.
"Is there any doubt that Pacquiao, the Filipino whirlwind, is the best pound-for-pound fighter? "Pacquiao entrenched himself as fighter of the year with this showing," Lance Pugmire of Los Angeles Times added.
Boxing purists, the ones who hate glossed-over matches which only aim to run up the cash register, crucified the match between the five-foot-six Pacquiao and the five-foot-10 Oscar de la Hoya. They branded it a mismatch, "a circus", and "a farce" and that de la Hoya would run over Pacquiao.
In an informal poll on Mannypacquiao.ph, 17 of 21 news and sports web sites picked de la Hoya, a 10-time champion and an Olympic gold medalist, to win.
Rafael, who predicted de la Hoya would stop Pacquiao in seven rounds, was one of the handful who ate their words in the aftermath of Pacquiao's destruction of The Golden Boy.
"Pacquiao was a master, strafing de la Hoya with brutal straight lefts all night. His speed was impressive," Rafael said.
"The critics of the welterweight fight ... called it a joke. Pugmire, who regularly covers Pacquiao in the LA Times, the US Pacific coast's most prestigious broadsheet, showered Pacquiao with praises. Prior to the bout, he was thinking of a de la Hoya win in the ninth.
In Pugmire's round-by-round analysis, he noted that statistics showed Pacquiao connected on 45 power punches. Ian Mannix, a sportswriter for the CNN/Sports Illustrated web site, hailed Pacquiao's game plan and one of his most fearsome assets - Pacquiao's strengths.
"Manny Pacquiao's stick-and-move strategy in the early rounds befuddled de la Hoya. Pacquiao would come in with one or two-punch combinations then deftly sidestep any de la Hoya flurries. As the fight wore on-and as de la Hoya began to fatigue, Pacquaio rained blows on him, fearlessly," Mannix said.
"If anything, it was Pacquiao that proved to be the more potent puncher."
Tim Dahlberg of the Associated Press wrote in his fight postmortem that he hasn't seen a fighter "(Pacquiao) win so big and another (de la Hoya) lose so much."
De la Hoya will go on to a life as a businessman and forget any thoughts of returning to the ring," Dahlberg wrote.
Bill Dwyre, Pugmire's colleague at LA Times and who was one of a few who predicted Pacquiao to win, was left in awe.
"Pacquiao did not just beat de la Hoya. Even Angelo Dundee, the trainer of boxing icons Muhammad Ali and Sugar Ray Leonard among others, inferred that Pacquiao was so good he disrupted whatever de la Hoya's game plan was.
"De la Hoya gave it all he had. Two great fighters fighting one another. "Oscar was in great shape. De La Hoya was ready to beat Pacman.
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