MANNY PACQUIAO never fails to draw record pay-per-view buys because of his fearless fighting style.
But what about Floyd Mayweather, why is he just as hot and sensational among fight fans?
?Floyd Mayweather draws millions of pay-per-view buyers because people are desperate to see him lose.?
Wow, what a sensational, all-revealing line.
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You can be sure that scathing shot is not from the Pacquiao camp, which has kept its cool despite the assorted slurs its main hero has received from Mayweather.
That?s from a Mayweather countryman, a Los Angeles resident.
It forms the core of an incisive article by Gary Andrew Poole, who writes for Time, New York Times and Esquire.
Poole was in Manila last month.
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He was here to do interviews and gather materials for a book on Pacquiao, scheduled to be out this year.
He stayed at the Mandarin, which reportedly served as Pacquiao?s Manila base while training for his last fight.
Poole talked to waiters, men on the street, all available sources that included old Pacquiao backers like Environment Secretary Lito Atienza and North Cotabato Vice Gov. Manny Pi?ol.
He went to the Black Nazarene in Quiapo and visited a spot at the back of the Far Eastern University, site of the now-gone L&M Gym, where Pacquiao trained as a lean and hungry teenager.
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Gary Poole was at ringside in Las Vegas on Saturday.
?It was hardly a classic?no blood stained the ring, and there was not enough back and forth drama?but Mayweather proved he has few equals, now or in the earlier eras,? he reported.
Poole said Mayweather ?can now be considered the best boxer in the world, and Manny Pacquiao will be ranked number two.?
?If the men can see beyond their own needs and work out their differences, the dream match-up could happen as early as this fall,? he continued. ?Pacquiao is currently running for Congress in the Philippines. I was there several weeks ago and Pacquiao was attracting thousands of people to his rallies, often held in coconut jungles, where he talks about his own abject poverty growing up in his impoverished and violent southern province. People line up a hundred deep at Pacquiao?s General Santos City House to beg for money.?
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Meanwhile, miles and miles away from GenSan, countless boxing fans cry for a Pacquiao-Mayweather encounter.
?Now the negotiating table has turned. For his reputation and for the sport of boxing, the pressure is on Pacquiao to agree to a fight. According to sources, Pacquiao has spent $10 million on the campaign. To get back into financial shape, he needs to fight again,? Poole wrote.
He said fighting Mayweather could be the most lucrative boxing match, even generating $40 million per fighter.
Why?
Fans can hardly wait to see Manny Pacquiao beat up Floyd Mayweather Jr.
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(GREAT JOY: Florencio Campomanes had always been counted as one of the boys by members of the old Manila sportswriting fraternity. Not only because he did the best chess columns for various periodicals here. Campo, lifetime honorary president of the International Chess Federation, never failed to gather the old gang whenever he would visit from his foreign post. He would buy drinks and regale us with his sparkling wit.
One night with cool, classy Campo, who could out-drink anybody under the table, was a course in diplomacy and decorum. He always infused gladness. He also made sure he would never become a nuisance. He slipped away quietly alone in a borrowed place in Baguio City last Sunday. Stay great Up There, Sir.)
