When Philippino Sensation Manny Pacquiao destroyed Mexican superstar Marco Antonio Barrera two years ago, he shocked the boxing world. When he dropped number-one ranked Mexican Juan Manuel Marquez in the first round of their fight last year and came out with a draw, a scoring error by one of the judges robbed Pacquiao of going 2-0 against two Mexican warriors.

But when Pacquiao moved north of 126 to tangle with another Mexican warrior, he got more than he bargained for. He got Erik Morales.

Last night at the sold out MGM Grand in Las Vegas, Erik "El Terrible" Morales showed yet again why he's considered one of the top pound-for-pound fighters in the world, adopting a mix of boxing and punching to win a unanimous decision over the tough Pacquiao. The win was vindication for Morales, who suffered a bitter loss to arc-rival Barrera last November, and who now must choose between a rematch with Pacquiao or revenge against Barrera.

Pacquiao entered the ring first to "Eye Of The Tiger" and thunderous applause but it was Morales who was introduced first in the ring. In the first round, Pacquiao, perhaps weary of Morales' power, didn't rush in, and when he did, Morales was all over him. When Pacquiao landed a combination, Morales chased him down and landed his own. It was an even round, and any assumption that Morales was going to wilt under Pacqiuao's aggression were quickly put to rest.

In round 2, Morales landed a right uppercut and threw his weight around, and as was made clear in the Pacquiao-Marquez fight (which HBO's Jim Lampley pointed out Morales watched eight times), Pacquiao couldn't fight going backwards.

In round 3, perhaps Morales' best round, "El Terrible" offset an agressive offensive attack with sound defence, and Pacquiao used his feet to move around the ring more. In the 4th, a clash of heads resulted in a cut near the right eye of Pacquiao, which was looked at by the doctor and ruled the result of a punch by referee Joe Cortez, who didn't see the headbutt but saw the left hook landed by Morales after it. Morales continued to stalk Pacquiao, even mocking him by raising his arms after landing a punch, something "Pac-Man" always does after getting hit to show that he's alright.

Morales took the 6th round off, but still did enough to win it. It was evident by now that Pacquiao, who came into the fight at 139 unofficially, may be too small for the division. Morales, 140 unofficially, seemed to throw Pacquiao around the ring like a rag doll.

In the 7th round, the leather flew. Morales engaged Pacquiao in a shootout, obviously feeling that "Pac-Man" couldn't hurt him. In the 9th round, however, Morales was hurt by a straight left but fought back hard.

By the 10th and 11th rounds, Pacquiao was exposed as a one-dimensional fighter, but in the 12th round, Morales inexplicably (and after his father told him not to go out and do anything stupid) turned southpaw. He may have felt that he already won the fight and wanted to show Pacquiao that he couldn't hurt him, but he got rocked. It was a foolish mistake for a seasoned veteran like Morales to make, and it cost him the round. Though Morales iron jaw rendered Pacquiao's power impotent, it is also now clear that Morales left his knockout power at 122.

Seemingly dissapointed that Pacquiao didn;t knock out Morales, the slightly biased Larry Merchant tried to make a bigger deal out of the fact that Pacquiao wasn't using Cleto Reyes gloves, known as "the puncher's gloves". Pacquiao, 38-3-2 (29), said that if he had been wearing the gloves, he'd have knocked Morales down. (It should be noted that Barrera-Morales III featured the same gloves chosen by Morales, and Barrera, who also prefers Reyes, still found a way to win).

Morales, 48-2 (34) when asked by Merchant if he loved going toe-to-toe with Pacquiao, replied in Spanish, "Yes, I loved it."

And so did we.

In a four fight night that had four Mexian winners, the first undercard was a hypnotizingly arduos affair which saw Martin Castillo decision Puerto Rican Erik Morel and retain his alphabet belt at junior bantamweight. Next 19-year-old (really?) Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. pummelled sacrifical lamb Ryan Monaldo, who had a rcord of 19-15, to a 5th round stoppage in their junior lightweight fight. The third fight of the evening betwen flyweights Hussein Hussein and Jorge Arce was an entertaining, cartoonish slugfest which saw Mexican Jorge Arce, who entered the ring wearing a cowboy hat and sucking a lollipop, stop Hussein in the 11th round with a barrage of unanswered punches.