IB Funfact: Emanuel Dapidran Pacquiao has fought just once in the month of August in his 24-year, 69-bout career. It was his sixth pro fight and third ever 6-rounder, and with this match his KO ratio plummeted to a mere 20% - a low it would never again reach (in fact, by the conclusion of his 1995 campaign, it would never again dip below thirty percent) - and its 23rd anniversary was 2½ weeks ago. This content is protected Couple of stray observations: That ring is quite literally a broom closet. In fact, I've seen more spacious broom closets. Simbajon worked the body very effectively, although it required walking through hellfire to deliver them. Some of those flurries downstairs visibly bothered young Pacquiao and there were moments where, if you were viewing it live it would be forgivable if you suspected they could end up influencing the outcome. Dude was always fast AF, especially in the fly range. Those itty-bitty scrawny little toothpick arms, OMG! Kind of a forgotten gem of a war, here. Very nice little domestic prospect rumble, kind of lost in the shuffle with the victor obviously going on to have dozens more significant evenings while his opponent faded into obscurity. Simbajon continuing to load up an uppercut after having the wind-up interrupted by Pacquiao landing a flush max-power counter 1-2 bang on the kisser, leaving him momentarily dazed before picking up where he left off ...and then finding the mark on the underside of Pacquiao's chin and landing his uppercut, with authority = boss level ****. It was actually super classy and mature of the adolescent Pacman to embrace the Flash after the scorecards were read in a show of respect and sportsmanship, and then further to give him the space he obviously needed when Simbajon proved too distraught by the disappointment to reciprocate, and even holding the ropes apart for him. That was an unexpectedly really sweet moment.
1995 was also the last year that Simbajon would finish with an overall record in the positive. His final mark was 13-38-6 (3), hanging up the gloves in 2007 (right around when Pacquiao was knee-deep in carving out his ATG legacy at super feather, coming fresh off the rubber match kayo of Érik Morales) having never ventured above super bantam. Shame, because as we see in this early battle he wasn't a shabby fighter. Complete lack of power is probably what cursed him. To his credit, with all those defeats he was only stopped eight times...and he suffered tons of fight-ending cuts & took lots of short-notice assignments. His path may have diverged to almost polar extremes from his fellow prospect 23 years ago, but he was a brave little journeyman.