WHAT?s your thought on Manny being defeated by Bradley?
Don?t ask a fan, just ask the woman in the house. He won, the woman insists.
A young woman working as a waitress in a mall resto shrugged her shoulders and said, ?Okey lang.? But after a short silence, she said quietly, ?Pero maayo unta tu?g nakada-ug pa si Manny, oy!?
?They cheated him.?
A boxer is brave, strong and agile, like what Manny is to the woman fan. What does an ordinary housewife and mother today know about boxing?
In Grandma?s time, the woman would probably stand by in her sari-sari store, listening to the talk of the guys in the village about the latest boxing match. She never heard of the young Filipino boxer Francisco Guilledo, known as ?Pancho Villa,? who won the World Flyweight Championship in 1923 and became ?the greatest Asian fighter in boxing history? in his time.
Mother in her own time had heard of Flash Elorde from radio news and Father?s conversation. Especially after a picture of the Flash and him came out in the local papers in one of Elorde’s visit to the city. The Cebuano boxer was world champion of the Featherweight Division from 1960 to 1967, said to be the longest-running champion in the category at that time.
Last week, the ordinary wife and mother learned all about the Manny Pacquiao-Tim Bradley fight not only in the sari-sari store but at home in the television at the end of the day and in the conversation of the children, one of them updating through the Internet.
If you take a cab during a Pacquiao fight, you?ll listen to the cabbie?s radio, his attention barely on the road but on Pacquiao?s hits.
Did you see the reaction of the crowd of Manny?s fans, not much later but immediately after the announcement of the winner in Las Vegas? Someone should aim a camera at the faces of the crowd on the TV screen right when the result of a boxing fight is announced. ?And the winner is?.? That would give the generations after (if they preserve the film or CD) a story to tell the children.
Boxing, a man?s skill in attacking an adversary and defending himself, was not much part of a Filipino woman?s life, unless she was married to a boxer or to one who won or lost a fight, won or lost a bet. How did the ?unfair? judging of the Paquiao-Bradley fight affect her?
?Manny won.?
What are the rules that the woman understands? Does she recognize a jab, a hook, an uppercut? No, but she can make out unfairness. She watched how the referee in the Las Vegas fight last Sunday would take time pushing both fighters apart if Bradley got a hold of Pacquiao and hit with punches against the rule.
The rules were there in ancient times, and they were followed honestly, or the offender got whipped by the judges or by the organizer of the fight. But they were not written rules.
There were no weight classifications, a pair of fighters set to fight was chosen by lot. There was no ring as we know the fighting area today; they probably had boxing out in some yard and under the sun. The sun behind a boxer or out front made the difference in the chance to deliver effective punches when the adversary was blinded by the glare.
And the ancient fight could go on until one admitted defeat or was knocked out. Or the referee would allow time out for the fighters to regain strength. Without the protective gear that we know today as gloves, fighters put themselves in danger of getting seriously injured or killed.
But when boxing became a sport included in the Olympic Games in Greece, it gained popularity and acceptance, its image improved even in the rest of Europe. The fighters are warned against kicking, elbowing, head-butting, holding.
Manny won that fight, insisted the mother of a friend. ?Well, no matter. There?s going to be a re-match, I hope,? she said.
?And they say there?s more money in a re-match,? my friend laughed.
?Manny will always be a winner,? the mother said. ?Let?s move on.?
