Ricky must still be feeling the after shocks of Pacquiao’s left hand since he just added himself to the long list of boxers who are putting into questions the Filipino icon’s recent accomplishments.
Athletes know the hard work that it entails to reach the pinnacle of success. As a result, they often have unwritten rules that they often apply among themselves.
One of them is not associating a fellow athlete with something that can negatively impact their career without any evidences.
There is very few if any that is worse than being associated with the use of performance enhancing drugs. As a result, it baffles the mind that some boxers can easily insinuate that Pacquiao is using PED without a hint of any evidences. It’s nothing short of disrespect to the sacrifices and hard work that fellow athletes go through.
Sure, they may not directly accuse Pacquiao of using PED’s but insinuating him with it in a clever manner might be just as worse.
It’s like someone saying, “He acts like a kleptomaniac, but I don’t think he stole it.”
The issue of steroids regarding Pacquiao has been an ongoing issue for quite sometimes, and the fact is so far not even a minute evidence supporting his use has ever surfaced. They say that when there is smoke, then there is fire, but in this case it’s been as clear as a sunny day that Pacquiao is just a once in a generation athlete that is destined to set new standards for his successors to follow or exceed.
It’s also time to credit Pacquiao for his willingness to learn and improve upon his skills. Very few athletes in the history of sports has improved upon his skills as much as Pacquiao from the middle to the latter part of his career. Only few since it takes tremendous discipline, work ethic along with a touch of humbleness.
For example what did they use to comment on Pacquiao in his early fights? It was his balance and lack of great footwork. But now, even Steward has acknowledged that his improved in that area and even Roach during media day before the Clottey fight said that when Pacquiao’s footwork caught up with his upper body movements is when he became the fighter he is today. According to Roach that happened during the David Diaz fight.
Now lets analyze the most said reasons that his accusers often point out to Pacquiao’s supposed use of PEDs
Myth number one: Pacquiao has gained a great amount of weight in such a short time.
Fact: Pacquiao has weighed in around 144-148 since his lightweight days and might now be stronger since he doesn’t have to cut as much weight.
Myth number two: Pacquiao must be using PEDs since he’s knocking guys out left and right since moving up in weights.
Fact: He’s always been a knock out artist from the beginning. Also, he’s been dominating and knocking guys out in the higher weight class, but necessarily because his punching power has suddenly become extraordinary, but because as I said before he’s got the unique ability to throw punches at odd angles and the vision to connect it at the right time. He also knocks his opponents out not by just one punch but by the volume of punches that he throws courtesy of his great stamina that he’s always had.
So, until an evidence is found, all this PED issue regarding Pacquiao is just another excuse to downgrade his body of work. A body of work that no matter what his detractors say places him not just among the greats but legendary figures such as Ruth, Ali and Jordan. For now it’s all much ado about nothing as Dennis Guillermo said in his last article.
It’s now time to ignore this issue the same way the BWAA ignored Mayweather when considering who the best fighter of the decade was.
