AN EYE T O S AFET Y
IT is a boxing tragedy that still haunts world champ Manny Pacquiao more than two decades later and the reason he is fighting to make the sport safer.
Pacquiao began sparring on the weekend in readiness for his clash with Brisbane’s Fighting Schoolteacher Jeff Horn at Suncorp Stadium on July 2 but it was on a much smaller stage that the Filipino boxing icon suffered one of the great heartbreaks of his life.
Pacquiao and his best friend Eugene Barutag were both 16 years old when they found themselves fighting separate opponents on the same fight card in 1995.
The pair had stowed away together from a life of abject poverty as street kids in General Santos City to make new lives for themselves as boxers 1500km to the north in Manila.
They both promised to support each other as they climbed the precarious ladder of professional fighting.
On December 9, 1995, Barutag fought veteran journeyman Randy Andagan in the main supporting bout to Pacquiao’s 10th professional bout against Rolando Toyogon in a small Manila hall.
Barutag was winning his fight but faded badly and took one heavy punch after another before collapsing in his corner. Chaos ensued as officials tried to revive the fighter.
Pacquiao’s eyes well with tears when he recalls his friend’s fight to the death and how he held him in his arms back stage as his young life slipped away.
“He was my close friend. I feel so bad,’’ Pacquiao said. “I was saying to him ‘ come on you can make it’ but his eyes looked straight ahead and he was not breathing anymore.’’
Pacquiao’s best mate was dead at just 16.
Incredibly minutes after that numbing tragedy, the baby- faced 50kg Pacquiao then climbed into ring to win his fight.
He spent the next three days sitting by Barutag’s open coffin and paid for his friend’s funeral from the little money he had saved while boxing and working as a welder.
“Even though my friend died I promised him that I would continue our dream and become a champion to honour him,’’ Pacquiao said.
Last week in the Philippines Senate, Pacquiao who is one of the country’s political figures, was pushing through his Bill to establish a Philippines Boxing Commission to regulate the sport and make it safer with more medical checks. the same