The past, present and future of Philippine boxing crossed paths in sleepy Koronadal, South Cotabato, one day in December of 1997. Luisito Espinosa was the toast of the town then, while Manny Pacquiao was the new kid on the block. The Rolando Navarette who came was but a mere shell of the once great fighter who terrorized the boxing world.

The event was Espinosa's fifth defense of the World Boxing Council (WBC) featherweight title in front of his hometown crowd, which Pacquiao also considered as his, he being from nearby General Santos City. Navarette, known during the 80's as the "Bad Boy from Dadiangas" when General Santos was still called Dadiangas, hobbled to see Espinosa and Pacquiao take on separate opponents.

Being in the undercard, Pacquio did not like to fight before empty chairs and stands, not wanting his kababayans to miss his hometown debut. Forced to fight though, Pacquiao vented his ire on his muscular Thai opponent, knocking him out cold in 98 seconds of the first round.

In the main event, Espinosa also knocked out Argentine rival Carlos Rios in six rounds, but not before a Rios haymaker made Espinosa kiss the canvas himself.

Navarette soaked it all up and even paid Espinosa a post-fight visit in his hotel room to interest the still bruised champion in the boxing gym he was putting up. Only a few people knew then, certainly not Navarette, that the Espinosa-Rios fight was nearly scratched after the fight promoters failed to raise Espinosa's guaranteed purse of $150,000.

Led by the then governor of South Cotabato, Larry de Pedro, the promoters promised to pay Luisito the very next day, averting the cancellation of the main card. As it turned out, the promise made by De Pedro and company was an empty one - unfulfilled to this day.

Fast-forward to 2005. Pacquiao has become the new poster boy for Philippine boxing. This after Pacquiao stunned the boxing world with an 11 th round technical knockout win over the legendary Antonio Barrera of Mexico in 2003. This despite Pacquiao's loss last March to the other great Mexican in the super-featherweight class, Eric Morales.

As the first Filipino boxer to pocket millions of pesos in prize money, Pacquiao has plenty to be happy about despite being cut up and made to wear a grotesque blood mask by the classy Morales.

Still, not everything's fine in the Pacquiao camp as tales of double cross have started to filter out. Sore that the "aging" Morales had shattered his self-proclaimed invincibility, Pacquiao, who got $1.7 million as purse from the Morales fight, was also seething mad with American promoter Murad Muhammad for allegedly pocketing even what should have been the share of Pacquiao in the pay-per-view proceeds.

Navarette? Well, save for provincial news reports on beatings he dealt (mostly to his live-in partner) and received (mostly from other people fed up with his antics), he has faded away from public consciousness.

As for Espinosa, 1997 will always be meaningful, even if this time may not mean anything anymore to Pacquiao. Nonetheless, Pacquiao is well advised to look at what has since happened to the great Luisito Espinosa to escape being caught in the well-laid traps set by vultures in the seedy, shady world of boxing.

Lest success intoxicates Pacquiao and his newly-fattened bank account fuels some more his reported appetite to gamble hundreds of thousands of pesos on the pool table, he should be reminded that the majority of boxers who got rich in boxing ended up dirt poor in the end.

Keep on punching!

Espinosa was a great boxer, with emphasis on "was." He was certainly more stylish than Pacquiao, though it may be too much to look for style from a slugger like Pacquiao.

Father Time being a hundredfold more cruel on prizefighters, Espinosa, at 37, has seen better days atop the boxing ring. Yes, Espinosa still fights, his last bout having taken place only last February. Nevertheless, Espinosa still dukes it out with no-name fighters in the US not because he still can, but because he still has to in order to feed his wife and three children; and so as not to jeopardize his application for a green card.

The tragedy is that most of the no-name fighters Espinosa had fought after getting out of retirement in 2001 to settle and fight in the US, had beaten him. What a way to end for someone who was the world bantamweight champion from 1989 to 1991 and world featherweight champion from 1995 to 1998.

Hermie Rivera, the man who nurtured the former bamboo gatherer into a two-division world champion, best described Espinosa's quandary. In 2003, having failed to give Espinosa a last crack at a world title against International Boxing Organization super-featherweight champion Cassius Baloyi of South Africa, Rivera told the Inquirer : "I am earnestly pleading to Louie to call it a day in as much as the last bus had passed us. Opportunities such as this, which left us totally drained despite our concerted efforts to save the promo, will not, sad to say, come our way again. The avenue left for Luisito to snatch another world title is kaput, leaving me with no option but to convince the two-time champion to hang it up. I'm certain Louie will balk but we're in no room to sidestep this mean blow from south of nowhere."

The Espinosa-Baloyi fight did not push through because Espinosa failed to get a waiver from US Immigration to go to Manila for that bout. As a holder of a "special skills" visa, with boxing being his special skill, Espinosa had been warned to continue fighting in the US or face possible deportation.

But despite that setback, Espinosa and his wife Marie Cherie were in high spirits with the birth of their third child, Niko, in October of 2003. At the time, the Espinosas were living in a house provided by Luisito's new managers in Walnut Creek, California. The couple's oldest child, John Louie, was in sixth grade at Stanley Middle High School in Lafayette, while their only daughter, Danica, was four years old then. In between fights, Espinosa took on odd jobs, including tending a bar to make ends meet.

But so much for their optimism since Espinosa dropped his last two fights: a technical knockout loss to Carlos Navarro in seven rounds in Reno on July 9, 2004; and a numbing third-round stoppage authored by Cristobal Cruz last February 18. Against Cruz, Espinosa was paid $3,000, measly for a fighter of his stature.

Some might argue that if Espinosa only had financial literacy or some business sense, then he and his family could comfortably live in the Philippines on the fruits of his many successful defenses of his WBA bantamweight and WBC featherweight titles. But it should be noted that even at the height of Espinosa's ring career, he never saw the kind of money that Pacquiao was able to secure.

Espinosa, in fact, was only offered $25,000 for the Baloyi fight - peanuts compared to offers being made to present-day boxers in the lighter divisions. Espinosa's loss of the WBC title to Mexican Cesar Soto in May of 1999 was costly because the winner of that fight was drummed up to face Prince Naseem Hamed Hamed with a guaranteed purse of a cool million dollars.

Where too, Louie?

Having been defeated in his last two fights in the US, Espinosa has to confront anew the two directions available to him: To continue endangering his life by fighting until he gets a permanent resident status in the US; or to call it quits and come home to the Philippines to concentrate on getting paid the $150,000 De Pedro owed him since 1997.

Espinosa has filed a civil case in the Philippines to force De Pedro to cough up his money, but sadly the suit has gathered dust for years at the regional trial court of Manila.