CONGRATULATIONS Manny on your successful reelection bid as Member of the House of Representatives for the Saranggani district.
What?s this I hear? some snickering? Well, to hell with all the brickbats. We have had actors, basketball players and nincompoops strutting their wares around those august halls, haven?t we?
We have also been pilloried (whether unfairly or fairly is a matter of perspective) for having elected a 20-year old OJT to the Senate.
Look around you, it not difficult to discern the derelicts and shady characters who have successfully pre-fixed the word ?Honorable? to their names after the May 2013 elections.
Why should my boxers be any less worthy?.?
If you have any violent reactions to the foregoing, I seriously advise you to reconsider and perhaps review round two of Pacquiao-Hatton.
HAVING SAID THAT. In a perfect world, for diehard boxing fans like me who could probably care less about Manny?s proficiency in legislating, things would probably have been different.
Right after that shocking knockout loss to arch enemy Juan Manuel Marquez, Manny would have shunned politics and immediately started training for a rematch or a tune-up bout.
In a perfect boxing world, that is.
As it stands now, too much time has elapsed between the Marquez kayo in December 2012 to his next fight against banger Brandon Rios this coming November.
Mind you, this is unlike Floyd Mayweather?s layoff which was due in part to his incarceration. ?Money? did not lose his last fight and has yet to lose.
Manny on the other hand, is coming off a brutal evisceration, one that raised questions about his physical durability and psychological disposition.
Plus, we can only speculate that during the campaign period, he hardly had the time nor the inclination to maintain the regular exercise regimen required of a top-notch fighter at the zenith of the sport.
It?s all about maintaining that edge, guys …that killer instinct.
BRANDON RIOS. Still, I laud the choice of Brandon Rios as the perfect choice for a comeback opponent.
Though we all know that Rios was not the first option, he is tailor-made for our ?Pambansang Kamao? as he possesses the perfect hybrid of danger and vulnerability that will make this fight both intriguing and enlightening.
Style-wise, his vigorous brawling ways will ensure an action-packed fight. Rios doesn?t take a step backward and Manny will only be too willing to oblige.
Manny will have the advantage in hand speed and power, but the resolute Rios has been known to walk through his opponent?s best punches.
Rios also possesses enough pop in his hands to make Manny wary and this will be a crucial metric.
In a previous column, I have raised the possibility that Manny?s punch resistance could be waning and how he handles Rios? power in this fight could be instructive of his future career path.
In the Marquez loss, Manny was ahead on the cards and Marquez was just about to check out when he caught Manny with a beautifully timed counter punch.
But prior to that, Manny found himself at the end of a looping right hand from Marquez and was knocked down.
We all know that these two feisty rivals have fought 3 times before and exchanged hundreds of blows, but Manny has never been hurt by Marquez enough to get knocked down or rendered unconscious for 10 minutes.
Rios does not possess one-punch knockout power as he often overwhelms his opponents with a murderous accumulation of blows.
But Manny will surely get hit in this fight and if he survives and goes on to win a bruising battle, then we will have a good metric of how ready he will be for another war against ?Dinamita? Marquez.
LAST ROUND. It?s on the enthusiastic and energetic new mayor of Pinamungahan, Glenn Baricuatro. Cheers!
