Emmanuel D. Pacquiao can?t do it. He really can?t do it, folks.
He’s too busy training to shock the world.
So I will have to be his ghost writer on this one. Trust me, I am more than happy to do it.
Dear Richard Schaefer, Don Jose Sulaiman and any and all other Cassandras:
This is going to sound like a form letter. It should because I wanted answer all of you critics now as I will before your very eyes come Dec. 6.
Save me your crocodile tears. Save me your concern for my health and welfare.
I am professional boxer not a tuk-tuk driver. I am a world champion proven through and through.
I know, my wife knows and all my fans know I assume the risk of what can happen in boxing. I assume that risk just like Oscar de la Hoya does for the same reasons, money and pride. I think with Oscar the money comes first, the pride a distant second. For me, it?s just the opposite.
Remember that old Public Enemy title ?It Takes A Nation Of Millions To Hold Us Back?? Well, I have a unique responsibility that I am happy to shoulder and it?s one that Oscar, for all his success, has never had to bear.
I am the Pinoy National Fist, I am my country?s sporting idol and that gives me both privileges and responsibilities.
Oscar claims two nations, the US and Mexico, but he has never been the national sporting or even boxing idol of either. That?s just fact, not disrespect, just the cold, hard facts.
It?s no secret that there is an outspoken segment of the Mexican boxing fan community which does not care for Oscar at all. Their man of the moment is Antonio Margarito.
But enough about Oscar?s public relations problems.
Look, I know what I am getting into and so does my veteran trainer Freddie Roach. Coach Roach is a lot of things but one thing he is not is a soulless mercenary, only it for the cash.
We think alike. We think that not only will I make a competitive showing against Oscar, we are convinced I can win and I will win this fight.
All this bleating about what a beating I am about to take really makes me laugh in private.
Pray tell who was the last guy that Oscar gave a wicked beatdown to? You really have to go back into the time machine to answer that one, don?t you?
If by some disastrous occurrence, I do take a beating, I will take it like the man, like the courageous fighter I am.
But that won?t happen. Mr. Sulaiman knows that deep down and so does Oscar?s yes man, Richie Rich Schaefer.
It?s kind of odd to think that Golden Boy makes money from my fights, including this one, and at the same time their Chief Operating Officer is wailing, moaning and gnashing his pearly white Swiss teeth about what a merciless whipping I am about to take.
I guess, if I did take some beating, that could be counted as blood money for the Goldens. But what can you expect Richie to say, ?Oscar is going to get beat like a drum.?
He?s the head cheerleader at GBP. Shake those pom poms, Richie!
But that will never happen.
One group that I personally guarantee will take a beating on Dec. 6 are the bookies who make Oscar a prohibitive favorite.
Oscar may take a beating. I can?t be sure of that until we actually cross gloves.
But I won?t be limited to being competitive. I am going to win this fight.
Oscar and his pals are trying to whistle their way through the graveyard now. They?ve come to realize that Professor Roach is right about Oscar being unable to pull the trigger.
Match my howitzer against his toy guns and what happens?
Right, now you?re catching on you naysayers.
I will walk out of the ring with a ?W? after this fight and Oscar will be tagged with an ?L.?
I wouldn?t be surprised if Messrs. Schaefer and Sulaiman are among the first to tell me, ?Oh, Manny, we knew you could do it.?
I will accept their congratulations and then I will laugh in their faces.
Of course, I will do it in my modest and sportsmanlike way.
This great victory may change De La Hoya but it won?t change me.
Yours In Boxing,
Manny ?Pacman? Pacquiao
