Bernard Fernandez | Manny-Erik 3: Too bad they're not heavies

0 Comments | Philadelphia Daily News, November, 2006

IF ONLY Manny Pacquiao could be stretched on a medieval torture rack from a height of 5-6 ½ to, say, 6-3. If only his appetite for such Filipino fare as beef nilaga, beef caldereta and beef kare-kare was so ravenous that he could pack on another 90 pounds and still retain that ripped musculature.

But Pac- quiao is not going to wake up Saturday and find himself as tall as an NBA shooting guard. And although he apparently likes beef dishes, he is not going to consume an entire cow between now and then. For that matter, neither is his Mexican opponent, Erik Morales, who has a tendency to put on weight but not that much. After another desultory week of heavyweight boxing that served to illustrate the dangerous degree to which the sport's flagship division is listing, along come...