IF there is anything at all that can draw the people?s attention away from the ongoing Mamasapano investigation, it is a Pacquiao fight. Any Pacquiao fight.
When the fight is with America?s undefeated champion Floyd Mayweather, all fighting will stop in Mindanao. All debate on who is to blame for the massacre will be set aside. And Filipinos will be one with the rest of the sports world in watching the biggest fight ever in the history of boxing.
Mayweather, undefeated in 47 fights, announced last Saturday that the long-awaited fight will finally take place on May 2 at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, Nevada. It is a fight the sports world had been waiting for since five years ago, when Pacquiao and Mayweather emerged as the two most colorful figures in the boxing world.
For years, Mayweather, a master defensive fighter, seemed to be avoiding Pacquiao, a left-handed champion in eight weight divisions with tremendous quickness in his hands. Quite by accident, the two met at courtside at a basketball game of the Miami Heat in Florida last month. Without their trainers and lawyers and other backers, the two came to an agreement. And so finally, The Fight is on.
So powerful is the attraction of a Mayweather-Pacquiao fight that the MGM Grand Hotel, with over 6,800 rooms, announced it had run out of rooms for the public. Mayweather is guaranteed a purse of $120 million for the fight; Pacquiao, $80 million. There will be additional income from the pay-per-view crowd. It will be the richest fight in history.
The money, of course, is only part of the story. Manny Pacquiao has become a folk hero to us, one who worked his way up from anonymity in his native General Santos City. He dropped out of school because of poverty. Then at the age of 14, he went to Manila, living for a time in the streets. At 16 and weighing just 98 pounds and standing at 4 feet, 9 inches, he turned professional, won his first fight in 1995, and has not looked back since.
And so on May 2, Pacquiao will fight the greatest ring battle of his career. For that single fight, he stands to earn $80 million or P3.54 billion. But more than the huge prize, Manny will be fighting for his country, for his fellow Filipinos. To them, he is the poor boy who became the great achiever, who rose from poverty in his Mindanao hometown to the highest levels of the boxing world. More than any official, he is the face of the country to the rest of the world.
He stands out as one who never stopped fighting despite all the difficulties and all the odds in life. Win or lose, he will be the nation?s champion on May 2. And we will all be cheering for him.
