Sun.Star Essay: The champ, he is

Saturday, November 19, 2011

WHAT kind of fans are the Filipinos?

“Intawon sab si Pacquiao!” said the housegirl after the fight on television was over that Sunday afternoon.

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“Hoy, nakadaug siya, uy!” I reacted.

“Wa lagi siya malipay, maam!”

Listen to the talk about this fight, it will be around for sometime, probably even long after Manny “Pacman” Pacquiao comes home and sits quietly in his congressional chair during the sessions to do some congressional work. Probably the talk will stay longer, until the Manny promoters agree to a fourth fight so that Marquez would not feel cheated again.

But the women say, “Husto na!” Like wife Jinkee and the mother Dionisia, they want Manny to hang his globes in certain glory, still as world champion.

I wonder about the opinion of women in relation to the last Manny Pacquiao vs. Juan Manuel Marquez fight. But even if you could say the women were there as much as the men, as you saw in crowds covered by media, you can’t read much about their opinion in the Internet nor in newspapers or magazines. They know how they themselves feel, that they’re happy for the majority decision that made Manny win even if they wanted a knockout or one like it. They’d still accept the decision, if asked about their opinion on it—Manny having won in the score, although slightly. And that’s still winning.

But the women Manny fans would have enough of the talk about the fight in the sports world and they’d soon go back to tending the house, cooking, washing, sweeping after all the talk has simmered down.

For their beloved Manny, the feeling of triumph will stay in the Filipino woman, although not loudly.

An article says Manny won but “not handily.”

“Manny Pacquiao escapes with a decision.”

A third article talked about how “there was nothing conclusive about it.”

Or, “Not definitive,” no, the fight was not.

Manny is a “winner by majority.” The scores speak, although not exceptionally. The three judges went 115-113, 116-112, 114-114.

From blog sites, the voices are heard.

One blogger, who calls himself Wehd1nga, says, “forget Juan-ma he's history, he got his chance and blew it, playing safe and waiting for Pacman to come in so he could counter punch wont win championship”.

But another comment goes—Pacquiao isn’t that good at counter punching, a problem Marquez gave the Pacman in this fight, almost counter-punching through, almost getting away with it.

One JM gives Pacman an excuse, saying, “hindi maganda ang performance ni Pac kasi gusto niyang ipakita na hindi siya perpekto.”

One article in the New York Times Sports by Greg Bishop is about Pacman the man, the Filipino, least of all the boxer. Bishop describes the few minutes after the fight when Manny went back to Locker Room No. 2 at the MGM Grand. He lay down flat on his back on the wooden table, his head above the right eye bleeding. He held on tight to Jinkee’s arm as the doctor cleaned the cut and pushed a needle near the gash to sew it.

Nobody talked about the fight, instead Pacquiao talked about religion, reported Bishop. “God is great,” Pacquiao kept saying. Journalist Bishop says “his (Manny’s) face swollen in spots, his hands sore, his pride likely also bruised.”

In the article, promoter Bob Arum is said to have told Pacquiao, “You look as great as you did before, champ.”

After the cut was closed, “Pacquiao climbed off the table, looked in the mirror and shadowboxed with a small bandage above his right eye. Already, talk (outside the room) had turned to another fight between the men, a fourth chance to find a definitive winner, once and for all, or perhaps to never find one.”

Bishop wrote: “Pacquiao combed his hair, changed into a dress shirt and sang in the front of the mirror.”

Would the Filipinos have thrown bottles and cans into the ring, as the Mexican Marquez fans did, if it were Marquez announced as majority winner?
Nope. And they’ll continue loving Pacquiao.

(ecuizon@gmail.com)