IT used to be that everyone plus their karaoke-loving off-tune neighbor would be airing a Pacquiao fight on a Sunday and the most common question during fight week would be, “Where are you watching the Pacquiao fight?” Now, not only have I not heard that question, the only Pacquiao-related question I saw online was of one boxing official saying the PPV fees of Skycable was too steep for a Pacman fight.
Aah, how times have changed.
Pacquiao is in Kuala Lumpur right now for his comeback fight against Lucas Martin Matthysse, which will happen a year and 13 days after his upset loss to Jeff Horn in Australia. This is the second straight fight that Manny is fighting outside of the US, though his fight is scheduled for the US market: Sunday morning here, so it’s Saturday night in the US.
His PPV numbers have gone down steadily over the years and it was his mega-dud of the century against Floyd Mayweather three years ago that was the only bright spot.
Before, it seemed the whole country would stop to watch his fights in Las Vegas. Now a lot of fans have sworn never to watch his fights again after getting turned off by some of his controversial statements as a politician.
Heck, even Nike dropped him when he said something against the LGBT community a few years back. However, for sure, there are still some diehard fans of the Pacman who’d root for him.
I, for one, hope he wins this Sunday, so that he can finally go out with a bang and retire a champion. It would be a pity if Matthysse does what Manny did for boxing greats Oscar dela Hoya and Ricky Hatton—pummel them senseless into retirement.
I don’t know how much Pacquiao is getting from the Matthysse fight and I’m not even sure if he’s going to earn at all, what with that chartered plane full of hangers-on he is bringing to Malaysia.
And there’s his biggest guest of all, President Rodrigo Duterte himself. (Here’s praying Digong won’t cause a diplomatic incident with another off-the-cuff remark.) Matthysse is 39-4 with 36 KOs and is four years younger than the fighting senator. He has said numerous times that he will force Pacquiao into retirement, while Buboy Fernandez, who is head trainer for the first time, warned the Argentinian he’d meet a storm should he charge in.
The usual pre-fight bravado to raise interest in the fight. I won’t be surprised if, during the official press conference or the weigh-in, there are going to be World Cup references made, considering that both Malaysia and the country the world champion come from are football-manic.
After this fight—win or lose—I hope Manny retires for good. If he still wants to do anything related to sports, he could concentrate on his fledgling league—MPBL—which is fast becoming the country’s fave league.
Matches are always packed considering it uses a home-and-away format and publicity is great since it utilizes both free TV and Facebook.
So, yep, getting busy with the MPBL is one great alternative for Manny. Or, he could just work as a senator full-time.