How can you not like Manny Pacquiao?
With two recent controversies that swirled around him, this former street kid who survived and succeeded through sheer guts and courage has shown to the world that he is not what many thought he was.
Take the case of the media storm stirred by his reported comment on same sex marriage.
A lesser mortal would have caved in, yielded and immediately changed course following the deluge of negative reaction over his views on same sex marriage aired in the grammatically horrendous article written by a Fil-Am blogger who spiked it with Biblical quotes proscribing ?death to homosexuals.?
With the prospect of the cancellation of his multi-million Nike endorsement hanging over his head, Filipino boxing icon Manny Pacquiao calmly explained his side and succeeded in clearing the issue by stating that the controversial Leviticus quote did not come from him but was supplied by the writer.
He also went on to explain that while he is against gay marriage because of the teachings of his religion, he harbors no hate or even just a dislike towards the gays admitting that he also has relatives who belong to the group.
What was amazing was that after the controversy, which saw different lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender groups pouncing on Pacquiao and hitting him with everything, the Filipino boxing icon accepted the errant writer?s public apology and even allowed him to hang around the Griffith Park where he was training for the fight against Timothy Bradley.
Then came the greatest shocker of all.
In a fight which many thought would be over in six rounds, Bradley showed resilience by surviving the first six rounds and coasted along in the last three, obviously just to get out of the ring on his feet, and scored the most incredible split decision victory.
While the whole world was furious over the questionable decision of judges CJ Ross and Duane Ford who gave the fight to the American challenger by an unbelievable 7 rounds to 5, Pacquiao just shrugged his shoulders, accepted the verdict and retired to his dugout to the warm embrace of his wife and two sons.
Saying he believed he won the fight, Pacquiao calmly accepted the decision of the judges saying that there was nothing more that he could do but leave his fate to God.
There were no tantrums inside the ring, no looks of disgust and definitely no harsh words for the two judges who are the most reviled boxing officials in the world today.
This is the incredible character of Manny Pacquiao, the street kid who rose from the dust of poverty to become one of the most influential sports figures in the world today and undoubtedly one of the greatest fighters of all time.
Perhaps, Juan Manuel Marquez could learn a lesson or two in handling and accepting defeat.
With the grace of a true champion, Pacquiao showed to the whole world why boxing will feel a huge emptiness when the PacMan would decide to hang up his gloves and retire from the ring.
