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Thursday, January 15, 2004
Taneo: Pacman needs to eat more to be the greatest
By Paul J. Taneo
Free-for-all
The Philippine Daily Inquirer might have done right by naming Manny Pacquiao “Filipino of the Year 2003”. He was deemed the person “who has made the most positive impact on the life of the nation,” beating out such major newsmakers as the COA team that exposed Meralco’s anomaly and caused the refund of billions in pesos to energy consumers in Metro Manila and MMDA chairman Bayani Fernando.
The PDI is not as unbiased as Time Magazine’s Man/Person of the Year award, which makes its choice based on an entity’s impact on the news that year whether for good or for bad.
Dear old Philippines doesn’t have too many things to be proud about and the act is understandable. But some of our countrymen might have overreacted in their hosannas, declaring Pacquiao greater than Pancho Villa and Gabriel Elorde.
To say Pacquiao is greater than his predecessors shouldn’t be blinded by the here and now. Pacquiao is the man now for demolishing Marco Antonio Barrera, deemed the world’s best boxer in his weight class. But Barrera is the only boxer of note Pacquiao has fought so far. There is certainly no guarantee Pacquiao will demolish all his future opponents the way he did Barrera.
“He’s the textbook type of boxer. If you would teach a boxer the fundamentals, you would go to Elorde because he is almost perfect in basics. But Pacquiao, man, he uses power, courage and guts. That’s where his greatness lies,” Nick Andrew Giongco of the Manila Bulletin gushed.
Veteran journalist Teodoro Benigno is just as effusive and typically metaphor heavy: “Pacquiao now eclipses our very own Pancho Villa as the greatest Filipino fist-tosser of all time. Formerly a stand-up brawler, Pacquiao, a southpaw, over- hauled his attack mode. Now he was a swiveling, bobbing commando, coming in like a Harley Davidson going down Baguio in zigzag bursts of speed, fists homing in like circular bursts from an Apache helicopter.”
Rocky Marciano retired a heavyweight champion undefeated in 49 fights but practically no list of the greatest boxers in history ranks him No.1. He’s got as much “power, courage and guts” as Pacquiao or even more but Muhammad Ali and Sugar Ray Robinson, who lost five and 19 fights, respectively, are ranked higher than Marciano in the greatest meter.
And certainly, Elorde’s attack mode was not inferior to Pacquiao’s.
Legacy should be the sole basis for greatness. Pacquiao’s impact on boxing shouldn’t be assessed until he hangs up his gloves for good having fought the good long fight, adding to his present 27 fights. (Elorde lost as many bouts in his career but retired having fought 117 matches.) And the best persons to do this should be the ones who were born at least 10 years after Pacquiao’s retirement to ensure a lack of bias for and against him – having not experienced the euphoria and disappointment of witnessing him fight during their conscious lifetime.
Wait a few years more and let’s see if Pacquaio is really that good and if he really deserves to be in a higher plane than proven legends Villa and Elorde.
(sports@sunstar.com.ph)
(January 15, 2004 issue)
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