HATE MAIL FROM THE ISLANDS PLENTIFUL!
By being both a person of color, and one with a Scandinavian mother, I’ve seen various forms of racism in my lifetime. These sentiments have not been limited to here in the United States, where in 1984, I had a Turlock, CA coffee shop owner refuse service to myself and a black trainer. No, I’ve felt the vibes of the “Klu Klux Klan” types in foreign countries as well. As a San Francisco Policeman, I can recall penning at least one “hate” crime report.
AGHAST AT THE ANTI-MEXICAN RHETORIC
The reason I bring this up, is after I wrote the Saturday piece entitled, “Pacquiao Wins, But He’ll Never Beat Erik,” we were inundated with vile, racist, and hate filled email from the Philippines. And before you say, Pedro it was only a few, it wasn’t. Within two hours, there were almost 120 comments. Time and again, the Pacquiao backers were so taken aback that anybody would say, “Pacquiao Can’t Beat Erik,” that over 40 of them wrote anti-Mexican verbiage, coupled with profanity so rank it was sickening!
UGLY FEELINGS, NOT JUST FROM ONE OR TWO!
And before you say, Pedro, come on, 40 people don’t represent the feelings of an entire nation, it did amount to better than 33% of the comments left. These rabid Pacquiao fans, they went beyond the racist remarks about myself, and Mexicans people in general (for the record, I am not of Mexican descent.). Dozens of times, I was accused of being anti-Filipino in these four-letter rants! This hurt, probably more than the racial remarks, I mean forget the fact that my grandfather was born in Subic Bay, there has never been a writer in boxing that has tried to protect Filipino pugilists more than I.
WHO WAS IT THAT HELPED RUN MURAD OUT?
Some of you may recall, that I was the first, and really only journalist (2001) that looked under promoter Murad Muhammad’s smelly coat, only to find out that HBO had given him $250,000 for the Pacquaio-Agapito Sanchez fight, of which Manny Pacquiao received around $65,000. And of course, we told Muhammad’s lawyer to stuff it, this when threatened with litigation. I am proud to say that this American website, we helped run Murad Muhammad out of the Philippines, at least in the case of Pacquiao.
AND WHAT OF THE “ROACH?”
None of the other U.S. sites took the time to investigate, and or report Murad’s exploitation of Pacquiao. And in some instances, their stories were incredibly spun in Muhammad’s favor several times. There were a number of stories, based on fiction, and Murad’s bullspit, some even written by Filipino shills, who seemed to be in the employ of Muhammad, and or Rod “The Roach” Nazario.
SAVED KING LOUIE OF LATE AS WELL!
In the case of former bantamweight (118 lbs), and featherweight (126) champion Luisito Espinosa, www.RingTalk.com recently played a part in keeping the 38-year old warrior, who had been KO’d in four of his last six outings, and knocked unconscious in his last fight, out of the ring with the Mongolian minister of mayhem, the former lightweight (135 lbs) king Lakva Sim.
ETHNIC PRIDE IS ONE THING!
Filipinos are not better than Mexicans, Arabs, Jews, Blacks, at least not in my mind, as I cling to the notion that all men and women are created equal. It is a great thing that the people of the Philippines back Manny Pacquiao, but where were you when Luisito was screwed out of $150,000 purse when he fought in front of better than 100,000 countrymen? I proposed that you, the citizens of the Philippines, that everybody halt work for a short period of time, this to bring attention to the fact that Espinosa was never paid for the Carlos Rios fight. Did you know, and do you care that Louie is a penniless broken down fighter, without his wife and children, who was at one point living in somebody’s garage!
HONESTY IS WHAT ANGERED “SOME” PACQUIAO FANS
When I wrote that, “Erik Morales will beat Manny Pacquiao,” I was stating an opinion. The reasons I feel this way, and this was written before Erik had even lost to Zahir Raheem, these feelings are predicated on items I will get to later in this piece. And if you think that after my having seen Morales lose to Zahir, that I would change my mind, that’s not the case. Look, Manny, who was once a flyweight (112) champ, he is just too small to be fighting at 130 lbs!
BESIDES MARCO, WHO ELSE HAS MANNY BEATEN?
Let’s be honest, Pacquiao has NEVER beaten a top ten featherweight, with the exception of Marco Antonio Barrera. And after having Juan Manuel Marquez down thrice, Pacquiao was fortunate to get the draw, this after Marquez ran off so many consecutive rounds that even the staunchest “Pac-Man” fans were extremely nervous, before the draw was announced.
BEING BOTH “PRO MANNY” & “REAL” FOLKS!
Today, there is no fighter in big time boxing that is as predictable as Pacquiao. Even HBO’s Jim Lampley, he pointed out Saturday night, “Pacquiao, all he throws is two (right) jabs, and the left cross!” Analyst and Hall of Fame trainer Emanuel Steward, he concurred, “He is very predictable.” And when we take a close look at his fight with Hector Velazquez Saturday, the only area in which Pacquiao showed any slight improvement, was that he threw an occasional right hook.
PACQUIAO IS “NO PUNCHER,” NOT AT THIS WEIGHT!
Against Velazquez, who was hardly a world-class fighter, this seeing he is now 42-11, Pacquiao deserves as a grade of C, maybe a C+ tops! Forget the Pacquiao predictability, the reality is that Velazquez was a “hobo” at worst, and a fair fighter at best. And still, there he was landing hard shots on the smaller Pacquiao early on. And before you say anything positive came out of this, please, Velazquez couldn’t carry Erik’s boxing boots, not now, not ever!
LOOK AT THE NUMBERS BEFORE YOU BRAG!
The only fighter of Philippine persuasion that beat anybody of note was Brian Viloria. With his first round KO of defending WBC 108 lb. champ Eric Ortiz, the Filipino-American Viloria defeated a world class fighter with a 24-4-1 record, and 16 KO’s. As I’ve noted, Velazquez was old, slow, had never beaten anybody really good, and had already lost ten fights. Ray “Boom-Boom” Bautista, the unbeaten bantamweight, his KO was something I wouldn’t be bragging about much either. You see, Felix Murillo has now lost five fights in a row, three by knockout, one by disqualification. His Colombian record (13-0?) was suspect, to say the least
RABID FANS NEED TO COME BACK DOWN TO EARTH!
What I have done is given you, the Filipino boxing fan, a history lesson, along with my opinions. People should take pride in backing their compatriots when they compete in sporting events. But you need to face the reality of the situation. Manny Pacquiao, he is too small to fight at 130 lbs. And, unless he gets real lucky, Erik Morales will beat him again. This has nothing to do with Mexicans being superior to Filipinos, because as I’ve said, I consider everybody equal. The bottom line is that on Saturday, Pacquiao and Bautista, they both knocked out a couple of bums!
NOTHING MANNY CAN DO TO OFFSET ERIK’S PLUSES!
Manny is not going to get any bigger, taller, and no, weight lifting isn’t the answer either. The bottom line is that Erik is significantly bigger than Pacquiao, with longer arms and reach. He has a better jab than Manny, and he throws better, more fluid combinations. I thought Pacquiao could beat Erik the first time. But after watching the tape, I can now see why Morales’ promoter Bob Arum still wants Morales-Pacquiao II in January. And while it’s the “easiest big money fight” out there for Morales, it at the same time is the “hardest big money fight” out there for Pacquiao. Here’s a sincere wish of good luck to both warriors for their January rematch.
