In a country beset by problems economic and political and sorely lacking in someone alive to look up to, we scrounge for things or people to be proud of.
Anything half noteworthy that involves a Filipino, we use it to wave at whoever is watching. Whenever a Filipino wins a competition with “international” attached to it, Philippine media notices and will flog the news to death given half the chance.
So we have singers, beauty queens, minor inventors and boxers in the news.
If a Filipino or a Filipina for that matter makes it in American Idol, or the Malayo-Polynesian race produces its newest version of a Ms. International, or a scientist comes up with the newest herbal cure for hypertension or a Pinoy wins a legitimate boxing title, it is indeed reason to shout it out.
But an inventor toiling in a small laboratory and a boxer sweating blood and tears in the ring are worlds apart in the glamour scale. It is easier to glorify the boxer.
It is easy to understand why we do what we do with Manny “PacMan” Pacquiao. He wins and he is alive. Jose Rizal may be the Philippines’ official national hero but he lost his life in Bagumbayan and he is dead.
But then some quarters, still euphoric over Pacquiao’s (title-less, mind you) victory over Erik Morales, are already hailing him a hero cum the greatest Filipino athlete of all time. Take out the athlete part and many wouldn’t bat an eye.
VERY GOOD. After 46 fights, with a record of 41-3-2 (33 KOs), and without a world title at the moment, Pacquiao is being lionized as if Alexander the Great and George Patton rolled into one. Sure, Pacquiao is good. Very good, in fact.
But until he does to Marco Antonio Barrera and Juan Manuel Marquez what he did to Morales in their second encounter and get the WBC, WBA and IBF titles from these Mexicanos and hold on to these for at least three years, only then can we even consider calling Pacquiao the greatest Pinoy athlete of all time.
And why does it have to be a boxer? Boxers do risk more in terms of life and limb in their chosen field, but other Filipino athletes like basketbolista Ramon Fernandez, bowler Paeng Nepomuceno and billiards-genius Efren “Bata” Reyes can also lay claim to the greatest title.
And if we limit our choice to boxers, Gabriel “Flash” Elorde and Francisco “Pancho Villa” Guilledo can also state their claims.
Pacquiao’s career record right now pales in comparison to either Elorde’s 87-27-2 (33 KOs) or Villa’s 80-5-4 (25 KOs).
Elorde was World super-featherweight champion from 1960 to 1967 (the longest reign ever in the division) while also fighting in the OPBF, WBC and WBA lightweight division and also as a junior lightweight. One of the world’s greatest boxers, Roberto Duran, has admitted that Elorde was his childhood idol and one of his inspirations to become a boxer. The World Boxing Council had named Elorde and the just-as-great Alexis Arguello as the best junior lightweights in the last 50 years of the 20th century.
FREQUENT FIGHTERS. Villa was the World flyweight champion from June 18, 1923 to May 1, 1925, successfully defending his belt 24 times. Those were the days when boxers would fight as often as allowed and it was often. In the year Villa won the World title over Jimmy Wilde, Villa fought 20 times. In 1924, he fought 13 times and three times in 1925, dying 10 days after he lost his World title on points to Jimmy McLarnin, insisting to fight despite an ulcerated tooth that had toxins pumping into his body each time he exerted himself in the match.
Elorde and Villa had fought in an era when boxing rules weren’t so geared towards protecting the fighters and so a pug already out on his feet would still be battered by 10 punches or so before the referee would call a stop. And championship fights then entailed 15 rounds compared to the 12 nowadays.
Pacquiao’s greatness will have to be measured up to Elorde and Villa’s before he could be named the greatest. By these standards, Pacquiao has more than 50 fights to go on numerical grounds. But as the saying goes, that is “apples and oranges.”
No matter how you look at it, PacMan has a long way to go. So go easy on the greatest tag. Only Muhammad Ali was brazen enough to have called himself as such. As it turns out, “Sugar Ray” Robinson, aka Walker Smith Jr., is widely acknowledged as the greatest boxer ever.
VISAYAN WARRIORS. It is curious to think that all three Pinoy boxers all have their roots in the Visayas. Elorde is from Bogo, Cebu, Villa from Iloilo and Pacquiao’s father is from Pinamungajan, Cebu. Makes one proud.
