Today?s lecture is not about Manny Pacquiao. It?s about his fanatics, er, I mean his fans which is a term derived from fanatics anyway.
I agree with those who believe that the majority of Megamanny followers are Johnny One Notes meaning not really boxing fans but rather followers of the Pinoy idol. Period, end of story.
But I say so what? I mean who the hell cares how these men and women got into the boxing tent? It took a pugilistic Pied Piper named Pacman to do that, then so be it. What boxing people should be focusing on is how to keep them inside that shrinking tent,
Look back into your own lives, you Pacfan critics What brought you into the boxing tent?
For me, circa 1962 and 1963, my magnet was the cocky, run at the mouth Louisville Lip, then known by his ?slave name? of Cassius Marcellus Clay, Jr, and later known as Muhammad Ali.
I even started what I believe to have been the first and perhaps only, grandly named ?International Cassius Clay Fan Club,? and produced a newsletter called ?The Louisville Lip.? My mimeographed (ask your grandparents) publication had 12 writers but they were all me under noms de plume.
That?s how I got the boxing bug. I am still amazed I got to meet Himself when he came to Boston to announce the rematch with Sonny Liston and traveled to that fight when it was removed to Lewiston, Me., and also got to go see my personal idol fight (as his guest) in Toronto, Las Vegas, Lake Tahoe, Houston and New York
One of my prized possessions is the $150 ringside ticket that Ali gave me for the March 8, 1971, fight with Joe Frazier at Madison Square Garden,
I even got to go to Ali?s wedding in Beverly Hills, the day he married Veronica Porsche, mother of the radiant boxing and now TV personality beauty Laila Ali.
But enough about me. It matters not that the multitude of Pacmaniacs became attracted to boxing due to his charisma and to their national pride.
Maybe the uneducated Pac followers can learn about the exquisite ring skills of Nate Campbell and Joan Guzman.
Maybe they can earn to appreciate the ferocity of a Mexican named Antonio Margarito.
Who knows? Perhaps they can even learn and begin to appreciate the various skills of Wladimir Klitschko, a talented if not great heavyweight champion who unfortunately works in a dilapidated junkyard of a weight division.
Who?s to say that a goodly number of Pacmaniacs won?t spread their boxing wigs and become fans and supporters of other countrymen such as Nonito Donaire and then begin to patronize and support boxers regardless of national origin. I am thinking of that in the way so many Mexicans enjoy and savor the ring ferocity of Pacquiao.
Perhaps some of them will latch on to a prospect like Abner Mares and become a fan of the young Golden Boy Promotions fighter. Or maybe some of them will take a liking to a Chris Arreola or an Alex Povetkin. It could happen.
A country?s boxing tradition and firm fan base is not built overnight. You can?t expect the Pacfans of 2008 to harken back to the Flash Elorde era which must seem as dated and remote as the Stone Age.
Laugh at Pacfans all you want. Mock them for their devotion to Manny, Giggle at their general lack of appreciation of the ring generalship.
You do that and you can continue to do that. But you do so at boxing?s peril.
Boxing needs fresh fan blood badly. Pacfans are fresh blood for a struggling sport.
While they are rooting for their one and only hero, we should be rooting for them to discover and embrace many more heroes.
Trust me, we’ve got plenty of room inside our tent.
