We hope we are grossly mistaken in our assessment of the boxing career of our own Manny Pacquiao, but we have very serious misgivings about his future if he continues to fall for what has now become apparent as the patented lip service of his US promoter Murad Mohammad.
After all had been said and done at this point, it seems that Pacquiao has become the only Filipino boxer at present who has racked up the most number of fights without even actually setting a foot inside the ring.
With the exception of that Thai patsy hastily coughed up by Murad to avoid getting kicked out for failing to produce fights, Pacquiao already had several of what eventually turned out to be nothing more than phantom bouts, all occurring in the pages of newspapers.
Go ahead, count them. He was supposed to have a rematch with Marco Antonio Barrera. Pfft. He was supposed to fight Erik Morales. Pfft. Paulie Ayala. Pfft. Some South African. Pfft. A Juan Manuel Marquez rematch. Pfft. Now it is Morales again. Is another pfft in the offing?
Come on, when will Pacquiao wise up? In all of these pffting, the common denominator that immediately leaps out at your face is the visage of Murad, that self-proclaimed boisterous and salivating lover of Pacquiao and the Filipino people.
One is aghast to realize that Pacquiao seems not even aware that prudence dictates him to be immediately wary when a man who looks like a pirate unloads a corsair full of loud and profuse praises right up your face.
So Pacquiao is reputedly set to fight Morales this time? Oh brother. They even already have a date fixed. Come on. Pardon the pun, but given the number of dates we have been fed, we could all get indigestion.
The unfortunate thing is that the Philippine media do not seem to be any wiser than Pacquiao. They surf the Internet and make a beeline for those boxing websites and carry all that is printed there without any caveat, passing them off instead as gospel truth. Pray tell how many of these Pacquiao stories based on what appeared in boxing websites have actually materialized? Yet the Philippine media never seem to gag each time they have to eat back their words. All that matters is there are enough stories to dish out daily.
Now, who could be feeding these stories to these websites? Remember, any fool nowadays can create a website. Indeed, we are beginning to suspect there is a conspiracy in America to eventually shut Pacquiao out from the picture altogether.
Pacquiao may mean good business, but his bank account is in the Philippines. More importantly, a dominant Pacquiao effectively excludes other existing and aspiring American and Latino fighters. If there is indeed a conspiracy, we have a fair idea of who could be involved.
