MANNY Pacquiao may be the biggest sports personality in the Philippines and one of the best in boxing, but apparently, the who’s who in the world sports media don’t think so.
Heck, he’s not even good enough to be in the company of Keninesa Bekele.
Who’s he?
Bekele won the 5,000 meters and 10,000 meters gold medals in the World Championships last year—the first ever 5K and 10K double. And for that, he joins Roger Federer, Usain Bolt, Alberto Contador, Lionel Messi, and Valentino Rossi in the short list for the Laureus World Sportsman of the Year for 2009.
Now Pacman fans know 2009 was the year of the Pacman.
He whacked Ricky Hatton in two and gobbled Miguel Cotto in 12 to claim his sixth and seventh titles.
He’s the only guy to win world titles in seven weight divisions.
That should be of some merit, don’t you think?
And as the Boxer of the Decade awardee of both Ring Magazine and ESPN, well, Pacquiao should have been noticed, right?
But apparently the world’s eminent sportswriters, editors and broadcasters don’t think so.
According to Wikipedia, eminent writers, editors and broadcasters from 80 countries determine the top six, while the Laureus Sports Academy vote by secret ballot to determine the winner, which will be announced later this year.
It’s not that the panel ignores boxing, since it awarded Vitali Klischko for the Comeback of the Year in last year’s awards.
Or Pacquiao could have made the top seven, missing out by a vote on the top six, we’d never know.
Or it could be the panel has paid much attention to boxing, and has also gotten wind of the doping issue Pacquiao has so unfortunately faced.
They might not have wanted to be embarrassed getting caught acknowledging somebody who has been tainted.
We’ll never know.
Maybe, after Manny knocks out Floyd Mayweather Jr., he’d get noticed for 2011—as the congressman who beat that loudmouth.
Oh, well, stranger things have happened.
Floyd Jr.’s dad was the one who started it all and until now, he’s still at it. After calling Pacquiao a cheat, he’s now calling him crazy for turning down $40 million.
Well, I guess the Mayweathers thought that because of the money, they can all throw things at Manny because nobody in his right mind will turn down all that moolah.
They didn’t count on the guy who made P3 billion in his last three fights to walk away from another billion.
Oh by the way, Mayweather Jr. will now fight Shane Mosley on May 1 and so far, they haven’t been as full of venom as they were against Pacquiao.
Now Mosley’s the guy who admitted to having used steroids—albeit accidentally—and he’s also the same guy who challenged Mayweather Jr. to fight him after Lil Floyd’s comeback against Juan Manuel Marquez.
Mayweather, of course, side-stepped that challenge and only agreed to face Mosley when both had no one else to fight.
I wonder what kind of drug testing method the Mayweathers will require come fight night.
I also wonder what Floyd Sr. will say if his son loses.
