It is hard to forget that athletes are humans, made of flesh and blood and driven by the same necessities and desires as all of us. Keeping human nature in perspective is especially difficult when a beloved athlete has reached iconic levels of attention and importance.
For years Manny Pacquiao has been a hero in the Philippines and captivated the hearts of boxing fans through out the globe. Followers of Pacquiao praise his humble nature and incredible displays of fighting spirit inside the ring. This is a man who grew up in a poverty but rose to fame in boxing and took down some of the biggest names in the sport.
To those who support Pacquiao, he has become a legend.
But no matter how great an athlete and how recognizable Manny has become, he is a human. He is not a boxing God and is interested in the bottom line…money. One cannot blame Manny, he has a family to provide far beyond his days as a boxer and must maximize his earning potential while he is able to rake in a living.
One thing we have learned this week, is not that Manny Pacquiao is willing to push himself to the limits against a much bigger man in Oscar De La Hoya, but instead that the Filipino champion throws away the spirit of competition and urge to be great when the financial benefits clock in around 20 million dollars.
Look, anyone who tells you that Manny has a shot against Oscar is either blinded by the circus atmosphere of this bout or benefits financially from the event. There is no way that De La Hoya, a man who has been in the ring with middleweights, will be phased by the featherweight power of Pacquiao.
I know it, you know it, and Manny knows it.
The moment Manny signs on the dotted line to face ?The Golden Boy?, he has sold-out his competitive spirit and cashed out for the biggest paycheck of his life. I am not down grading Manny, but pointing out that he is human, like the rest of us.
It will be interesting how his poorest fans, the ones struggling to keep their heads above water in the rural areas of the Philippines and look to Manny for inspiration, will react when their hero signs up for a suicide run with monetary gain being the ultimate result.
Some of you reading this, especially the die hard Pacquiao loyalist, will say that a battle with De La Hoya is the ultimate test of Manny’s competitive fires. If Manny, who started out boxing professionally as a 106 pound sixteen year old, wanted to push himself to the limits in a reasonable manner, he would announce his intentions to clean out the lightweight division and make a nice some of cash along the way.
Taking on Oscar De La Hoya, even an older and slower version of the Mexican-American star, is an exercise in futility. Of course, Pacquiao’s hopeless attempt to take down De La Hoya will bring him approximately 20 million dollars before he fades into the sunset.
I guess sometimes I am disappointed by the decisions of boxers, their managers and promoters, because I fool myself into thinking that boxing ? even at its highest levels ? is a sport more than a show.
