WE don’t know, who Filipino ring idol Manny Pacquiao will pick as his opponent for his planned April 28 fight in the gambling enclave of Macau as of this writing. But one thing for sure. Ever since the name of In Jin Chi was mentioned, there’s been some criticism with former manager Shelly Finkel, claiming that it was a shame if Pacquiao fought In Jin Chi or any of the other names included in a list provided by Top Rank promoter Bob Arum.
In fairness to Pacquiao, he has never ducked anybody and has always been willing to fight the best in his division because he knows—as we do—that he can take on anybody at 130 pounds and whip them if he trains like he should. And Pacquiao’s level of training always depends on who he fights, which is basically not a bad thing because why should he kill himself if he can take his opponent without too much sweat.
Frankly, Manny deserves a break and that translates into a comparatively easy fight, although boxing has its unpredictable moments. He has fought three epic battles against the legendary Mexican Erik “El Terrible” Morales and although the last fight in his trilogy was a breeze, as the eminent founding secretary-general of the World Boxing Council Rudy Salud predicted, Pacquiao killed himself in the gym for some two months in preparation for Morales III.
Surely, after all the sacrifices he has made and the untold joy he has brought millions among us, he has an inherent right to relax and take on an opponent who, by all intelligent accounts, won’t prove to be an insurmountable foe.
The funny thing about all the fuss over a possible fight against In Jin Chi is that nobody, to our recollection, raised a howl when he fought Oscar Larios. It’s worth remembering that Larios was not even a champion—he was a former champion. Besides, he was only a super bantamweight, who had to move up two divisions to take the fight. In Jin Chi, on the other hand, is the reigning World Boxing Council featherweight champion and regained his title last December with a fairly impressive victory over Mexico’s Ricardo Lopez.
Besides that is the fact that some years ago, In Jin Chi gave Morales a helluva fight and in fact, the Mexican looked like the loser.
While we agree that a fight against Marco Antonio Barrera is what the public wants and we would love to see Pacquiao re-assert his mastery over the Mexican, the undeniable truth is that the Pacman has the right to decide when to fight Barrera. It’s his choice, not ours.
Barrera is certainly the fight just about everybody wishes to see including WBC president Jose Sulaiman. But like Don Jose predicted, that fight will happen sometime in September which would give the courts time to resolve the issue of conflicting claims of Golden Boy Promotions and Top Rank to the promotional rights for Pacquiao. Make no mistake about it, we felt that it would be best for Pacquiao to honor the contract he signed with Golden Boy, even though Bob Arum claims he had the right to exercise a first option.
Trouble is, none of us have seen the contracts so we don’t really know what the real legal implications are. Because of this, we should go along with what Pacquiao decides. After all, he is the one who has restored our country’s standing internationally and has, in an incredible manner, united us at least for a few fleeting hours by his exemplary performances in the ring. We owe him this at the very least for, after all, he is a national treasure.
