When you mark time in eras, as most of us do, there are milestones and threshold events that become part of your memory. For the percentage of us who can afford school, graduations are a big deal. It gives us a sense of relief, accomplishment, and some poignancy. At work, promotions and transfers are the way we mark the passing of an age. Death is also a great, indelible marker. And we are all heading there, eventually.
This week will mark supposed finales to two colorful, checkered champions. Kobe Bryant, the once-prodigious flying man who felt he could take on the world and win, will be lacing up his sneakers in the NBA for the last time. Those of us over 30 will recall other similar passages: the retirement of Julius Erving, his hoops progeny Michael Jordan, the death of Wilt Chamberlain, and the endless chain of those whose bodies have taken them as far as humanly possible in their arenas. Bryant, who marked his own career in two defined stages separated by which number he wore on his back, has finally been caught by Father Time, the inescapable master of us all. But this is not about Kobe Bryant.
In boxing, far more often than in basketball, comebacks are endless. So many champions, from Muhammad Ali to his own conqueror Larry Holmes and the equally familiar Erik Morales, have felt that time was reversible, a two-way street they could walk both sides of. But fourth-dimension physics would postulate that time goes forward, and is set in stone. Will Manny Pacquiao be the victim of an endless siren song and delude himself into thinking he can still stay at boxing?s highest level? Sorry, but as the clich? goes, time will tell. And it won?t lie.
Why is Pacquiao-Bradley III important? It is significant to us as boxing fans because it is an opportunity, one last glimpse back in time, for us to project the Manny Pacquiao we want to see, one more time. It will be a chance to say thanks. Since his second emergence 10 years ago, Pacquiao has constantly lifted our spirits, not just with his prodigious speed and skill, but with his ?aw shucks? down home philosophy and humility. He is essentially unchanged despite his massive wealth and world travels and power to influence. He still spouts his fundamental beliefs in a higher power, is tolerant to a fault, and trusting to an even more painful degree. He is generous, kind and sometimes naive, some of the best qualities we aspire for as Filipinos.
Of course, others see him making an effort as a part-time PBA player and absentee congressman, and shake their heads or wag their tongues. But the fact of the matter is many of us would jump at the same opportunities, if we?re totally honest with ourselves. It is like the armchair critics who dislike Filipinos who make it big abroad and call them ungrateful, or those who believe Filipino-Americans, no matter their brilliance, are not ?real? Filipinos, whatever the hell that means. Manny is simply being himself, and for all the criticism, he is following the rules and his passion, and spending his own money when he?s not giving huge chunks of it away. So since we?re not the ones feeding him, we have no right to speak ill of his lifestyle. There are a far greater number of people doing much worse, and with our money.
This fight ? with Pacquiao as the underdog by Las Vegas standards ? brings us full circle. It brings us back to the Pacquiao who was starting out, losing two critical title fights to Thai rivals because, simply put, he was not prepared. This brings us back to the first fight with Morales, when Manny was outclassed, and before his ascendancy to the sporting, moral and political power that he has since become. It harks back to the six years and change that he was untouchable, unbeatable, even as we cast a blind eye to all those catchweight title fights. Hey, the other guy agreed to do it, didn?t he? Sportshub ( Article MRec ), pagematch: 1, sectionmatch: 1
For all intents and purposes, it is another opportunity to redefine Manny Pacquiao, not just as potentially the greatest Filipino athlete of all time (at least up there with Elorde, Loyzaga, Nepomuceno and Jaworski). It is a chance to see how he and we are much more alike, though we basically feel that much more envious except for the part where he also gets hit hard in the ring. We like the spoils, the big houses, the Ferrari, the trips, the shopping, but we like it without having to stake our lives every time we go to work, unlike Manny. We simultaneously stand in awe while looking for flaws, because that is human nature, some would argue Filipino nature.
Many of us live in the confines of should?ve, could?ve and would?ve, and try to superimpose that on Pacquiao, as if we know better. He has lived it, tried it, and succeeded or failed at it, and to many of us, gotten away with it. The world did not end when he lost, or did not play basketball well in the PBA, or was not spectacular as a congressman. But he is actually living in those worlds, and we can?t seem to get over that. And when he was purposely misquoted about his views on same-sex marriage for whatever malicious reason, he stood by his beliefs and went on with his life, despite the number of people who so quickly turned against him though they were misinformed. To make a final point on the matter, he was simply quoting the Bible, and his own statement of compassion about the LGBT community was omitted to make it a better story. But when you ask how many of these flip-flopping critics actually did their homework or even just apologized afterwards, all you hear it stone cold stupid silence.
Pacquiao-Bradley III takes the Filipino champion off the pedestal, strips him of his godlike status, and reminds us that he is one of us, that despite the doubts, despite the nagging feeling that the result is not a sure thing, he is still in there when most of us would have called it a day. When quitting would have been far easier, he kept on. Perhaps that is why this fight is important.
