THERE is a Hall of Fame. And a Hall of Shame.
Manny Pacquiao is not only a Hall of Fame material. He is a cinch for it. Five year or so from now, his name will be etched on the Immortal Avenue of boxing greats. A pride for the race, whose indomitable spirit to scale any height is there like a mole of a lifetime.
Pacquiao deserves to be inducted there because, for one, he is the most exciting boxing champion of his era. No boxer has caught the imagination of the world in his generation except Pacquiao.
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For another, he is the only boxer to have owned eight world titles in eight weight divisions. I think that will never be surpassed, let alone equaled, in the next 100 years. He is now even the reigning world welterweight champion, which he had just retained after a laughable, lopsided 12-round decision over the overmatched Chris Algieri on Sunday in Macau.
Oh, yes, while Pacquiao is Hall of Fame-bound, not Algieri. Instead, Algieri could be Hall of Shame-bound.
He wouldn?t be if only Algieri had discarded his cloak of cowardice on Sunday. Had he abandoned his scared fight against Pacquiao, he might have easily lined himself up for a shot at greatness. Anyone trying to battle Pacquiao head-on could hook some luck, as in what Juan Manuel Marquez had done only a couple years back.
In 2012, Marquez knocked Pacquiao out with one powerful?but I still insist?lucky punch. It came in the last second of the sixth round amid a toe-to-toe war as though both were trapped tearing each other out inside a telephone booth. In that situation, where would defense be? It?d be all offense, and the first to sneak in the haymaker will win it?definitely, absolutely. You don?t need science in a brawl, all you need is one axe-like shot to prevail.
That is why after failing thrice to defeat Pacquiao, Marquez?s knockout win in their fourth bout had easily primed himself up for a shot at the Hall of Fame.
Not Algieri though. His 20-0 record sort of qualified him to challenge Pacquiao. But the so-called moment of truth?immortality was a dew away on the leaf of a morning mist?he bungled everything. By fighting scared, he blew it.
The Hall of Shame awaits his arrival.
