It was around November of 2003 when I first spoke with Manny Pacquiao. It was shortly after his victory over Marco Antonio Barrera. Back then Pacquiao was just a normal fighter that more people never heard of than did hear of. Back in them days he didn’t have the Nike commercials, and big money PPV’s, he was just Manny Pacquiao, a tough kid from the PI.
As the years have gone by, I have witnessed more and more people latch onto the Pacquiao band-wagon. Now we have the official Pacquiao this, and the official Pacquiao that, blah blah blah. If people aren’t stealing the guy’s money, they are stealing his brand, and if they aren’t stealing his brand, they are stealing his name and face, only to slap both onto T-shirts, or coffee cups, or whatever.
The land of Pacquiao is littered with snakes. Walking through the land of Pacquiao is like walking through a mine field. One wrong step, and BAM, off with your legs. It’s not that surprising that nice guys like Freddie Roach and Manny Pacquiao have crumb sucking leeches around them, but what is surprising is how they survive for as long as they do.
What is the definition of integrity? My definition of integrity is – what you are doing when nobody is looking. Who are these people that have popped up in the land of Pacquiao? You have your core regulars that have been there since the beginning, and then you have your Johnny come lately crew.
Many of the core regulars are good folks that Manny has known for years. Not all of them of course, but most are good. It’s the newbies that I am concerned with.
The Johnny come lately crew make me laugh. It’s pretty obvious who they are. This article won’t name drop folks because they know who they are too. The Johnny come lately crew are folks who are sinking their hands into Manny’s pockets from a few rows back. These are people that were nowhere’s to be found in 2003, and are all over and around Pacquiao now.
Even funnier is reading about people who are known Mayweather insiders being praised by one in particular Pacquiao insider on the web. On the surface that wouldn’t be such a bad thing. Again, no name dropping because those persons know who they are as well. The only thing I have to say on that is, the person doing the praising probably should break out a dictionary and look up the definition of “character” and then research a little bit more on a person before rolling out the honor guard for them.
One could probably feed 90 percent of the world’s hungry with just the amount of money that Manny Pacquiao has had stolen from him behind his back. Johnny come lately comes more frequently as each day passes it seems.
