MP, Boxing, Heroes, etc...

To tell the truth, I am pretty disappointed that Manny Pacquiao won against Morales. Don’t get me wrong, I am not a traitor nor do I hate MP. It's just that the predictability of the match is so predictable (I don’t know if I’m making any sense here) that the fight is just not that fun.

I don’t know if anybody notices it, but MP’s fights are getting longer and longer and I, and most of his fans, I guess, are looking forward to the hungry, I will knock the hell-out-of-you MP of the past. His matches are beginning or are already more of a business venture and entertainment than really raw boxing. Not that there’s something wrong with it, but really I miss the animal in him. Maybe he already feels his age.

Time may come...

But anyway, as a Filipino, I am still proud of the man.

The media hype...

I have one thing about all of this though. I have nothing against MP, and I assume that he is the man the press portrays him to be. But I doubt that…The way the press promotes him, the media hype which I call the mythologization of Pacquaio has it negative side to it.

Champion and the myth

There are other heroes. There are other Filipinos who, I think, deserves equal media treatment as MP. Many of this heroes are overshadowed by boxing. There are those who do well in the arts, academics, public service, science, etc. 

Let’s face it; he is not the poor boy from GenSan anymore. He is already the billionaire Pacquiao and his success story is a good and an inspiring story. Unfortunately, his story, though inspiring, if we take into account probability, have very little chance of being duplicated. If we keep on promoting his life, we may end up killing many aspiring young boxers.

In November of 1981, Korean boxer Duk Koo Kim dies after brutal fight with Ray 'Boom Boom' Mancini (below, in 1999). The tragic death forever tormented Mancini and changed the sport of boxing.

More and more of our youth, especially from the poor are trying their lot with boxing. There’s nothing wrong with it, but definitely something is not right when the youth tries to emulate the exception in boxing with little knowledge of the tragedies and failures in boxing. Of the many boxers that our country produced most of them, if not all of them, fared badly. With his business acumen and native intelligence, only MP made it to international superstardom and the million dollar club.

Really, I just wish a day  without news about Pacquaio. This has to end...somehow. His last fight against Marquez is not convincing. He should retire now.