Perhaps a certain amount of backlash against Manny Pacquiao was inevitable. Overexposure has probably been the catalyst for some sort of resentment from the easily resentful. While other fighters, apparently agoraphobics, spend most of their time Tweeting incoherently or gorging on Twinkies and Yodels, Pacquiao sings, makes movies, appears on talk shows, runs marathons, and moonlights as a congressman.
Moral qualms about his upcoming bout with Antonio Margarito have also kicked up a cloud of dust around Pacquiao recently. But the latest narrative being woven around Pacquiao, who turned pro at 106 pounds, is that he has been handpicking safe opponents, with the latest example of that being Margarito.
What is most remarkable about this pseudo-theory is that there are fighters out there who actually do handpick opponents and who embody the nastiest aspects of mismatches. This trend can easily be found on television, where opponents do their best ?Night of the Living Dead? imitations for the benefit of no one but the flesh peddlers who promote their dooms. They enter the ring still wrapped in burial shrouds, knock-kneed, ready to bleed, pale from the lack of light in the mausoleums, sepulchers, and catacombs from which they were exhumed.
In addition, many headliners are guilty of obvious cherry picking and seem to get away with it. Bernard Hopkins, for example, has been lauded for years for his light heavyweight accomplishments despite having only one fight (against Antonio Tarver) worthy of being asterisk-free. And, of course, no one is as protected as Andre Berto is, yet when it was announced that Berto, The Human Bermuda Triangle of Boxing, would be facing Freddy Hernandez, the general consensus seemed to be: there is no one else in the welterweight division for Berto to fight so the choice of Hernandez is just ducky. Does the same rationale not apply to Pacquiao? No, Margarito is not the best welterweight in the world at this point; that distinction belongs to Floyd Mayweather Jr. But, once again, it must be reiterated: the only fight that matters is Pacquiao-Mayweather, and if that bout cannot be made?because of lawsuits, enmity, aversion, avarice, or because the rings of Saturn have suddenly vanished?then Pacquiao must seek an alternative. That alternative happens to be the disgraced former number one welterweight in the world?as per The Ring?in 2004, 2005, 2006, and 2008.
But Margarito joins a list of prizefighters who have been deemed easy pickings. Joshua C
