Finally, we have a fight between two willing combatants, two guys ready to rumble.
If you were disappointed by the stall on the scheduled July 18 fight between Floyd Mayweather and Juan Manuel Marquez due to Pretty Sore Ribs reported by Pretty Boy, then maybe you can get some amusement and or enlightenment from the war of words that has erupted between myself and Philboxings high and mighty Edwin G. Espejo.
Usually, I would not participate in a battle of wits with a man who is unarmed but for sneak literary puncher Espejo I will make an exception.
I do not like the crab mentality offered by Espejo, the old let me drag you down because I do not share your vision approach.
Espejo offers no solutions to anything, only criticism which leads nowhere except to continuance of the status quo.
Espejo seems to be in an apoplectic condition, charging that I compared Manny Pacquiao and his burgeoning political aspirations to the lifetime achievements of great human beings Martin Luther King and Nelson Mandela, two great emancipators in their respective countries.
I take it reading comprehension is not Espejo`s strong suit because the whole point of my column was that Pacman has reached for the stars, the moon and the sky (my exact wording) in his boxing career.
I then toyed with the idea that such a great achiever might have similar grandiose aspirations in his new career beginning as a Congressman from troubled Sarangani if he is duly elected by the people.
I did not nominate Pacquiao for the Noble Prize, the Crackerjack Toy Surprise or even the Wurlitzer Prize.
Espejo also labels me ?a Manny sycophant“ which is not true either. Or maybe that is the only shred of truth in his puerile essay.
Am I supposed to ignore the most interesting fighter extant? I wrote ream after ream of copy about Muhammad Ali, about Larry Holmes, about Ray Leonard and then about Mike Tyson and Julio Cesar Chavez.
Instead of writing about the fighter people most want to read about, should I be focusing on some unknown?
Let me note that Philboxing, a site I really respect along with cousin Pacland, always seem to find space to include my written efforts on any boxing topic. I am grateful for that but I don’t appreciate this shrill voice from the peanut gallery.
Pipe down you pipsqueak before the White Gorilla (a racial reference if there ever was one) goes completely bananas.
Take notice I made no reference to my attackers pigmentation whatever it may be.
He seems to be lacking in political smarts when he talks about how the connected people who Pacquiao has surrounded himself with are going to drag him down in that arena.
Has Espejo uncovered something new in politics, something which reeks of corruption and other sharp practices. Wake up and smell the coffee, pal.
Politics is often said to be the art of the practical.
What you call making deals with the devil happens every day in the real world if not in your protective bubble domicile.
It happens in boxing, in politics and in every field imaginable.
But I forgot that it is imagination which you severly lack.
If you knew anything about the long, hard struggle for civil rights in America, you would know that old political hangdog Lyndon B. Johnson delivered more for black people than any president this side of a giant named Abraham Lincoln.
Dr. King wasn’t worried about lying down with a dog with fleas. King knew his dream needed muscle to push it foreword and he took his allies where he found them.
Espejo makes me laugh when he says Mandela would be insulted to be mentioned alongside political novice Pacquiao.
No he wouldn’t. Instead, this former boxer, who has dined with and regaled Ali, Roberto Duran, Marvin Haggler and other ring greats and been regaled by them, would enjoy meeting and greeting the Piny Idol.
If Manny could garner some tips or some political insight from Mandela, it would be like a boxing tyro getting pointers from Angelo Dundee or Coach Freddie Roach’s great mentor, Eddie Fitch.
I mean no personal attack on Espejo as I do not know the man.
Maybe he needs to sup at the table of brotherhood to expand his mind.
If Pacquiao listened to people like this nabob of negativity, he would have remained mired in the sewer of abject poverty and anonymity from which he rose so magnificently.
If it makes me a Pacman sycophant to give him his due, then I will wear the label proudly.
Pacquiao may be a budding political great. Or he could be a medicority or, even worse, just a hugely popular hack, another cog in a dirty machine.
History, not a pair of boxing scribes, will write that story when the time comes.
Mandela was a dreamer through decades of suffering and incarceration. Ditto for Rev. King who felt the sting of the Jim Crow police nightsticks and the bite of segregationist attack dogs.
They didn’t listen to people like Espejo who told them their dreams could never be achieved.
They ignored the naysayers.
As Pacquiao should ignore Espejo.
Some voices in the maddening crowd are not worth listening to.
This Doubting Thomas has marked himself as someone Manny should turn a deaf ear to.
If Pacman listened to the Espejos of this world, he would still be sitting on the canvas pining about those two ring defeats.
Similarly, if William Jefferson Clinton listened to such people, he would proably be pumping ethyl in Hope, Arkansas.
(The judges have scored this round 10-8, Marley.)
