(EDITOR’S NOTE: Be aware there are tens if not hundreds of people named Ravi Gupta on Facebook. Please do not spew Gupta-like venom at any innocent parties.)
Your first instinct is a wrong one, a mistaken belief that because Facebook hater Ravi Gupta spews venomous comments about Filipinos in general and Manny Pacquiao in particular, that you should return the fire.
Instead, I ask myself WWGD, meaning what would the greatest icon of Gupta’s homeland of India, do?
What the great man Gandhi would do is turn the other cheek and use nonviolence to turn the sickening tide of hatred that Gupta spreads across the Internet.
To Gupta, Filipinos are better labeled “Pactards.” He points out the hardcore Floyd Mayweather fans have been dismissed, quite abrasively, as “Flomos,” and he is right about that being just as wrong, just as ignorant.
To Gupta, who seems to be a college graduate working for an oil company in India and a respectable chap otherwise, Pacquiao’s boxing career is mythological and he continually harps onb the times when Pacquiao has been lumped up and even knocked out.
Gupta claims the Pacman Legions know little about boxing. This is where Gupta really goes off the deep end. Sure, Pacman has his share of bandwagon fans, followers who do not know a left hook from a fish hook.
His latest video screed is entitled “Definition of a Pactard.”
See Elie Seckbach video reaction to volcanic spews from Gupta.
On the other hand, so does Mayweather have some fans who blindly pledge allegiance to the long inactive Floyd because: a) they despise Pacquiao; b) they are black and feel some misplaced racial duty to be Mayweather fans or c) they just can’t stand Pacquiao’s broad success in America and across the planet.
If you’re a Mayweather fan because you like him and/or think he’s a great talent, then bully for you.
But many of you boxing newbies, including Hateleader Gupta, need to know this, just like you can be an Ali fan and a Frazier fan, you can also be a fan of both Floyd and Manny. If you are, then there’s no need to demonstrate that you know boxing. You’ve already done so by your mere appreciation of both men and their awesome fighting skills. Advertisement
So I, for one, have no time to hate Gupta. I was about to “defriend” him on Facebook but now I must admit, except for some coarse language therein, he puts together a nice video or two.
Right now, Gupta is my “frenemy” and I think one of these days he will come to the light and take a page from the book of Gandhi and from that of Dr. Martin Luther King.
We may never sit at the table of boxing brotherhood with this young man but give him to mature, to leave his childish nature behind.
His “hate” is broad and impersonal.
His “hate” is cosmetic.
Mayweather and Pacquiao are the two great rivals of their generation even if they never fight.
If Gupta really was a fan of our sport, he would find something to like about both. He would give props both to Mayweather’s flashy hand and foot speed and dazzling jabs and left hooks and to Pacquiao’s varied, furious “Manila Ice” offense and his refusal to ever quit even when he did get KO’d on his way up the boxing ladder.
Until Gupta matures, though, let’s do what The Mob used to do.
Let’s keep our friends close and enemies closer.
Let’s turn Gupta, Mayweather Maniac, into a Pacfan.
Because all Pacfans are fight fans, deep down. Ditto for Mayweather’s followers.
Otherwise, they would not spend any precious time “hating” either fighter.
I see that Gupta is a cricket fan so this may be what we call a sticky wicket for the lad but it’s undeniable.
Beneath his surface venom lies an awesome respect of Pacquiao.
That’s What Gandhi Would Do…for certain.
Let’s convert, not condemn.
