Last Sunday, it was Christmas in November. Noontime was revelry time like New Year's Eve.

Manny "The Pacman" Pacquiao of the Philippines had just demolished Mexico's proud Aztec warrior Eric "El Terrible" Morales via a sensational third-round TKO at Thomas and Mack Center in Las Vegas in the last of a brutal trilogy between two proud ring gladiators.

Thus Pacquiao, the 27-year old Gensan Bomber - demigod, crushed the three-time world champion and future Hall of Famer Morales into submission, shaking his head while on his pants three seconds before the end of the third - retirement in his mind - since "his spirit was willing, but the flesh weak."

The Pacman bulldozed his way like an uncaged cyclone - with both guns blazing at the body and face of the Mexican legend and uncorked a combination of blinding speed and megaton power in his fists that fell the Latino fistic icon and installed Manny as the best boxer in the world today, pound for pound.

Ring analysts had looked forward to a classic future bout featuring erstwhile boxing's greatest Floyd Mayweather and Pacman in a winner-take-all encuentro, but the latter decided to move a division higher in order to fight another living boxing legend Oscar "The Golden Boy" de la Joya.

The crowd of 18,276 at the live gate was the third largest in the boxing Mecca's history - behind the fights of Gerry Cooney (The Last White Hope) - Larry Homes (1980s) and the Julio Chavez-Hector Camacho (1990s). At least probably a billion others watched over television and exclusive cable outlets.

Traffic was super light and church attendance down while Filipinos abroad took office leave to watch the pulse-pounding fistic encounter that was short as it was savage.

Police and the criminals took a day off which explains the clean crime blotters for both reasons.

Pacquiao, the most exciting ring soldier today, proved his superiority in this weight class with a flyweight's footwork speed and the punching power of a heavyweight. The stunning finish through an early pulsating knockout may have looked like a masterful execution of a nearly flawless game plan or was it?

Every ring analyst thought Pacman would try to fight cautiously and evenly in the first five rounds against a doggedly determined underdog like Erik and go for the kill between the seventh to the ninth rounds after the Mexican boxer spends his energy chasing rainbows and nailing the phantom from Mindanao.

The crushing early debacle of the Tijuana Mexico native may have brought disaster upon himself by his loud mouth and fighting words that probably agitated the Gensan Bomber inside his psyche. In his heart, the Filipino ring master would not take that lightly.

One, Morales criticized Pacman (who had released a CD album) and his voice and said he couldn't sing. Next, he belittled Manny's punching power that he was never hurt by Pacman's punches in their two glorious fights. Finally, he looked down on the new fistic weapon of Pacquiao - the Right Hook - and said it will take years for a boxer, ordinarily, to perfect a new boxing fussilade. Of course, Pacquiao is no ordinary boxer.

Last Sunday, Pacman let his fists do the talking.

During the fight, Morales hit the head of Manny thrice during a break where their arms were locked in stalemate and sneered at his direction at the end of the second round when the Mexican was still standing on his two feet. That probably added venom to Manny's fists of fury. And at US$3 million prize money, Pacman deserved to get the P239,000/second reward for the lung-busting, beak-busting three rounds of fistic splendor.

The crowd was thrilled by every powerhouse thunderbolt unleashed by Pacman on the baby-faced Morales - landing 89 howitzers in less than nine minutes of fighting - and drove objectivity out of the window of every Filipino boxing commentator and annotator last Sunday. Pacman was "transformed from a one dimensional fighter to a lethal and systematic machine that grinds out punishment wrapped in leather."

The systematic annihilation of the Mexican assassin was pure and simple - poetry in motion.

The Pacman threw what hit like baseball bats of combinations that straddled in many directions - staccato style - from body to face to body - and we thought only Fernando Poe in the movies could execute with such ferocity and precision. Morales did not know what part of his anatomy to defend first.

Unlike in the previous fights, Pacquiao backpedaled under attack and pressed against the rope but simultaneously uncorking sledgehammer fists - one left hook catching Morales' handsome right jaw that dropped him the first time. The second round was the best one - with the pride of the Mexican who wouldn't run from any fight ranged against the superior ring savvy of a well trained, disciplined Filipino boxer - a duel of moral combatants who did not want to see the other left standing.

Then just when we thought Pacman absorbed stinging blows that snapped back his head many times, he came back with a vicious combination of wicked intentions, with one left straight, sending Morales three feet on his pants - puzzled by the intensity of the earthquake that just shook him to reality.

Still Morales tried to deliver what was left of his arsenal in the third round - engaging. Manny in a flood of peppery blows - until the cumulative effects of 52 brutal fights and the "carpet bombing" from the hands of steel from Cotabato - finally threw Morales back to the canvas - this time with "No Mas" written in his crumpled face like an old accordion.

Morales did go down fighting but another proud Mexican suddenly had his balls up his neck that day - Oscar Barrera, current super featherweight WBC Champion - as he contemplated his mandated bout with Pacman next March and he can see the pall-bearers coming.

The Pacman saw no need to humiliate Morales more than what he had already absorbed - and merely thanked his "Great God" for his victory and promised a new car for his beaming-as-sun mother in Mindanao.

When asked whether his clinical destruction of Morales would now make him the true "best boxer in the world" pound for pound, Manny gamely answered: "that is for people to decide, not the boxer."

The man has developed class, much like the silky rendition of the Philippine National Anthem by Fil-Am Sarah Geronimo who sang without the high-pitched hysterics of a Regine Velasquez but with the subdued confidence of an accomplished Filipino, like Manny Pacquiao. A star is born.