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Philippines, 24 Nov 2024 |
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"HOLY HITS" PhilBoxing.com Wed, 11 Jan 2012   There is a cottage industry in the Internet of anything related to the Manny Pacquiao and Floyd Mayweather saga. Every website and blog of the industry thrives on real and reel news about the fight that cannot materialize. And why not? Because this stuff sells. Better yet, it brings those desired "hits" coming for them. Write anything about Pacquiao or Mayweather and you will see your site visits double, even triple or more. It is hard to discern fact from fiction nowadays with the plethora of "Pacquiao-Mayweather" articles. In the age of Internet journalism, everyone with a keyboard can make up something and post it as a legitimate article. Even without verifying the facts, even without the benefit of an interview. Speculations turn into reality depending on what you want to read and lies turn into facts depending on what side you favor. Since 2009, the idea of the two top fighters in the world squaring off on top of the ring has made both the hard core and casual fans of the sport excited. The two most recognized face in boxing dueling each other has stirred up passion and anticipation for a sport that is pronounced as dying by some. And with the "Fight of the Century" stalling not once but twice and a potential third time that is, if you believe those articles that negotiations were being made late last year. The boxing world eagerly anticipates for anything that can satisfy their anticipation of this mega fight. Here comes the enterprising folks of the Internet world. They found a want, now they have a product for the millions of boxing netizens looking for anything "juicy" on the two top fighters of the world. Even if that product is all but a mere essay that can never pass the standards of my respected Creative Writing teacher in high school. If you put the entire tax code transcript with a heading that says "Floyd and Manny is happening?", you will see clicks attributed to that article. It has been a case of "this particular guy from the Pacquiao camp" says this on one article and another site will come up with "this particular guy from the Mayweather fold" says this instead. A virtual cat and mouse of quotes that come back and forth from sources not even relevant to the negotiating table. Hey, my barber has an opinion about it too, should I quote him and write it on one of my articles just to bring hits to this site. My friend who is a friend of a friend of one of Team Pacquiao's members has heard something about such and such. Maybe I should write one that says "Team Pacquiao member predicts Pacquiao - Mayweather showdown." When Mayweather pleaded guilty and was sentenced to 90 days in prison for a domestic battery case he was involved in was announced last month, everyone assumed that "The Fight" will not happen anytime soon. Pacquiao will fight a different opponent in the middle of the year as his yearly schedule dictates, Mayweather will have his "staycation" in a Nevada county jail. Then last week, armed with a savvy group of lawyers, Mayweather was able to request the court to have his sentencing delayed to June 1, 2012. The reason being the monetary loss the city will suffer from a Mayweather-Pacquiao bout which amounts to millions of dollars in revenue for Las Vegas. Hence the ghost that will never leave is back to haunt our sanity, the ghost that is Pacquiao vs. Mayweather. And that ghost rides on an car named the Internet, driven by gnomes and goblins of the virtual boxing world. In the last couple of days, many articles have been written about Manny Pacquiao as being the one to blame for this fight not happening. Mayweather is free now to fight right? So why not step up to the plate they say of the Filipino boxer. How soon did they forget that the reasons that this fight did not materialize in the past is because of the demands Mayweather had imposed on it. There was the Olympic drug testing, then the steroids issue, then the purse split. All of which Team Pacquiao has given into. Only because that Top Rank's Bob Arum verbalized that a fight with Mayweather in May may not happen because of logistical issues. Everyone assumes that Pacquiao shares the same thought. They now call him a "dodger, a ducker, a coward." The same adjectives they threw at Mayweather in the past are now hurled back at Pacquiao for no reason at all. They did not even reach out to the man for an interview and they came out with a rush of articles blaming everything on him now. It was a breath of fresh air when my Philboxing colleague, Eddie Alinea came out with the only Pacquiao interview about all of this. This was the only interview he gave addressing the issue. And he all but proved them wrong. In it he insists that Mayweather is top priority. In it he declares that he has not ducked anyone in his storied career and will not intend to do so in his future fights. In it he has reiterated that he has given in to most of Mayweather's demands regarding blood testing and the division of the prize money. In it he has repeated like he has said in the past that he will fight Mayweather once the negotiations have been finalized between the two camps. This are his own words, not a hearsay, not a rumor. They portray Pacquiao as a puppet of Arum, a mindless prize fighter that obeys his master's commands. A portrait so insulting for one who has live a life they can never even dream of. A life that is not achieve by ducking or by being a coward. A life achieved by taking the risks that Manny Pacquiao took in his life which brings him to what he is now. They used his words of politeness like when he emphasizes the importance of Arum as a promoter to one that is a caricature of him as a marionette. All done to, as he said in the interview "put him in a bad light." All to promote hype, to publicized their names and their sites and to attract the " holy hits " that they so crave. There is a huge difference between journalism and advertising. I ask you my good readers, which one do you prefer? You can reach Rich Mazon at rrmaze24@aol.com for reactions to this piece. Click here for a complete listing of columns by this author. Click here for a complete listing of this author's articles from different news sources. |
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