Twelve Rounds

Much has been said about the controversial Pacquiao-Bradley fight yesterday. It is written all over the blogs, news portals, tabloids, and broadsheets. It is the content of almost all the local news programs and I expect it to last for at least one week and another week after Manny Pacquiao’s homecoming.

I am writing this not to sound as an aspiring sports columnist. Or as a sports writer/blogger. Or some expressive bandwagon rider who writes his opinion on almost every issue.

I am writing this as an ordinary viewer who tried to keep focused on watching the fight despite a nasty hangover brought by an inuman session with his friends the night before the match. And as an ordinary Filipino boxing fan who, together with his fellow countrymen, felt robbed of a good and clean entertainment.

Please take note that these should be taken with a grain of iodized salt.

1. Pacquiao was undefeated for the last seven years (fifteen fights) of his boxing career - until the tragedy came yesterday. Perhaps we are just always accustomed to his victory that’s why we were all shocked by the tragedy. How about that?
2. Karl Marx once said that ‘Religion is the opium of the people’. Well here in the Philippines, it’s showbiz, television, social media, and the fights of Manny Pacquiao. In a country plagued by tragedy, corruption, impunity, and crime, there must always be something to uplift our spirit and temporarily escape these tragedies and Pacquiao’s fights are one of them. So I understood our grief. It is like taking away from us our painkiller. 
3. But of course, you will argue that yesterday’s fight was a clear victory for Manny Pacquiao. First, you are not the judges (who happen to have the final say on that match). Second, some boxing analysts saw a ‘relaxed’ Manny Pacquiao during the last, crucial rounds of the fight and they would have called it a draw. And third, as what Pontius Pilate said, “What I have written, I have written”.
4. The  tragedy of Manny Pacquiao yesterday reminds me of the same boxing tragedy of Mansueto ‘Onyok’ Velasco during the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta, Georgia. He was also robbed of what would have been the country’s first Olympic gold medal. What happened? Did we create the same noise? Did we support Onyok’s protest? Maybe I was just too young then to know these things. And times are different now with the age of social media. (The last time I saw, Onyok plays as a co-host and one of Pacquiao’s sidekicks on his shows. But that’s another story.)
5. Some (including my Erpats) said that Manny’s loss was a justice for the supposed victory of Juan Manuel Marquez during his third fight with the former. Plausible? (Maybe we should call the Mythbusters to test this.)
6. Another conspiracy that came out yesterday was Bob Arum was behind all of these. He wants a more hyped rematch for Pacquiao and Bradley which will only mean two words for the boxing promoter - Kaching! Kaching! (With these, I suggest that Manny Pacquiao’s entrance song on his next fight would be ‘Price Tag’ by Jessie J and not the overused and Rocky-ish ‘Eye of the Tiger’.)
7. With yesterday’s aftermath of the match and most of the people’s reactions, I have once again proven that the word ‘loser’ (or ‘talunan’) is not in our dictionary. We use the equally synonymous terms dinaya,niluto, and  pinagkaisahan. They are commonly used during the election period.
8. One of the most retweeted tweet/joke yesterday was ‘Niluto ang labang Pacquiao-Bradley. Sa sobrang luto, nasunog si Bradley!’. Wow! Just a few days ago, most of us went berserk on the alleged racism of the Bayo advertisement. I admire our inconsistency. Mabuhay!
9. I felt bad for Manny Pacquiao’s sons. It was their first time to watch their father’s fight on ringside. Some moron may look at this as a bad luck but hey, Daddy Manny would still go home with Money Many Prizes. Kaching! Kaching!
10. And yes, win or lose for Manny, Mommy Dionisia would still get her Hermes bag. So the ‘No Hermes’ trending topic yesterday is a blasphemy against Manny’s riches.  Kaching! Kaching! (After all, Manny has already bought Mommy D. a new van for her birthday last month).
11. As what Jessica Zafra said on her column today, it is natural for us Filipinos to look for someone or something to blame - his new-found love for God, Politics, show business, and the people around him. but let’s just leave it there. After all, Manny Pacquiao, despite his loss yesterday, will still (and always) be remembered as one of the greatest, if not the greatest boxer of all time.
12. Comic artist Gerry Alanguilan (Komikero) tweeted this yesterday: “I think we all need to lose once in a while. To keep us from being complacent. To keep us hungry. To have some humility.” Boxing is a game. There are winners and losers. Manny may have lost but this is not the end of him. And I think his new-found faith in God will help him deal with this loss. Or maybe this is the proper time for Manny to pass the torch to the next generation of great Filipino boxers.

Elsewhere:

• Was the Pacquiao-Bradley fight fixed? - Just hours before the big fight, lots of last-minute bets were placed on Bradley in Las Vegas, says one pro gambler
• A Filipino parent’s guide to dealing with Pacquiao loss - Blog entry of Benjamin Pimentel for Inquirer Global Nation about teaching our children the value and lessons from losing a fight.
• So Manny Pacquiao Lost - Jessica Zafra and her two cents, and four points, on this issue.

‘Boring’ can be spelled as N-A-R-V-A-E-Z

[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="500" caption="Philippine boxer Nonito Donaire connects with a left to Omar Narvaez of Argentina in the WBC, WBO World Bantamweight Titles bout at Madison Square Garden in New York on October 22, 2011. CHRIS TROTMAN/AFP"][/caption]

 

If there is one thing I love about Filipino boxing aside from Filipino heavyweights Pacquiao, Elorde, Velasco, Donaire, and other world-class fighters, it would be the viewers, the ordinary Juan.

An ordinary Juan watching the fight on his humble TV set can turn into an instant boxing analyst. After each fight, one can easily discuss how the fight went through or what a fighter should have done to knock the enemy out. An ordinary Juan does not need to be a Ronnie Nathanielsz, Ed Tolentino, Dyan Castillejo, or a Chino Trinidad to give a well-delivered analysis on the fight. Being a boxing aficionado nation, we are expert on that.

But one does not need to be a huge boxing fan to conclude yesterday’s much-anticipated Donaire-Narvaez fight is nothing but a boring show.

It was so boring I just decided to watch the fight of our Cebuano fighters televised on the rival network. And they proved to be more exciting and action-filled compared to this well-promoted match. So much for the hype.

Donaire is dubbed as an heir-apparent to Manny Pacquiao (though Bob Arum refuted that). Narvaez has a clean record and is undefeated. So I thought it will be an interesting punch fest.

But the challenger Omar Narvaez did a Joshua Clottey by just keeping his defensive stance and throwing an average 24 punches per round (An average bantamweight fighter throws 60 punches per round, according to ESPN’s Michael Woods) much to the disappointment of the Filipino Flash.

And the thousands of boxing fans who watched the fight at the Madison Square Gardenin New York. The crowd went wild in frustration and shouted “This is bullshit! This is bullshit!” and some of them left the theater even after the winner was declared.

Ryan Songolia of the Boxing Writers Asscoiation of America said that Donaire must have felt the pressure to perform an impressive fight having a good record of knockouts from his previous fight. On the other hand, Narvaez came only to survive and knowing that the Filipino Flash may knock him out.

But as in all boxing matches, win or lose, you still have the purse. And Narvaez may have survived the wrath of Donaire but the latter has stained his clean record. And we must still celebrate the victory of our Kababayan. this is another honor for our country.

Congratulations Nonito! See you on your next fight!

And I hope the upcoming Pacquiao-Marquez fight will be a good one and not just for “survival for the purse”.

Mabuhay ang mga Pilipinong boksingero!

Read more here:

• Donaire wins via unanimous decision versus Narvaez.


• Donaire apologizes to boxing fans after victory


• It was the fight with Clottey all over again

Yellow Fever

Tomorrow, Filipino Pride and Pambansang Kamao Manny Pacquiao will once again step into the ring to show the whole world what an eight division world champion can do to defend his title. This time, against the American Sugar Shane Mosley. And earlier today, Philippine time, these two great fighters stepped into the scales for their weigh-in.

Manny Pacquiao of the Philippines and US Shane Mosley (R) attend the official weigh-in for their fight in Las Vegas, Nevada on May 6, 2011. The eight division world champion Pacquiao marks his return to Las Vegas for the first time since 2009 by fighting Mosley for the World Boxing Organization welterweight title at the Garden Arena in the MGM Grand on May 7

Most of us are excited for the fight that will once again, hopefully, bring honor, pride, and unity to our problem-filled and divided country.

While most of the viewers will be placing their bets and riches for Pacquiao (or on what round will he send Mosley sleeping on the ring), our fighter will be fighting another opponent - poverty.

And Manny Pacquiao will once again set history tomorrow. For the first time in boxing history, a yellow pair of boxing gloves will be used.

As most of us know, red, blue, and burgundy are the colors used by a boxer. Yellow as a symbol of his fight against poverty. Pacman is said to wear yellow to "signify the unity among the Filipino people across the globe". In an interview with sportscaster Chino Trinidad, Pacman said in context that "boxing is not the biggest fight in his life. Eradicating poverty is now the biggest fight of his life." He also encouraged suppoters and fans of Shane Mosley to wear yellow too as a sign of unity with the Filipinos in our fight against poverty.

This move and advocacy of Pacquiao was lauded by the foreign media and other non-Filipino boxing aficionados. He uses his influence as a famous boxer to do something good and for the betterment of other people.

As expected, this move by Pacman, especially the preferred color, was not spared from comments and allegations that this was in support for President Noynoy Aquino (who used the same color during his campaign and obviously, the color inherited from his mother Cory Aquino). Why choose the color yellow? Why not the other colors? In my humorous and sarcastic mind, I made these things up:

• Blue - The famous color of President Nonoy's running-mate during the 2010 elections. This may be a bad choice. That color didn't win.


• Green - The so-called "galing at talino" color. Again, bad choice. This has akiss of death back in 2010 (wink!)


• Pink - The color of a bayani. Why not this one? Masakit sa mata. And Pacman might be mistaken as a member of Sir Danton Remoto's group.


• Red - The color of the badtrip and flash great man from Subic. Why not this one? It's the usual.


• Orange - The color of the guy who swam in the sea of garbage. Why not this one? Pacman supported this guy back in 2010? The reason may be obvious.

For some, Manny's choice of color may be a big deal. Metaphysically speaking, color is just an accident. It may be present or not. What is essential is the essence, the substance. What is important is Manny Pacquiao's advocacy to giht poverty.

With that advocacy, he is already a champion. And no one can take that title away from him.

I hope to see a sea of yellow tomorrow in support for our Pambansang Kamao.

And Floyd Mayweather, I hope to see you soon on the ring with this man.

Good luck Manny and bring honor once again to this country. Padayon!

P.S. Can you spot the Pambansang Anino in the photo?