Manny Pacquiao – Floyd Mayweather, JR. – Fire and Ice Part I
By Roy Bennett
It’s like being a kid again.
This is the biggest fight in the schoolyard.
You know it and I know it.
This scrap has got us all worked up and restless at our desks, stealing quick glances at the clock on the classroom wall.
We can’t wait for that bell to sound for recess. Because we know.
It’s about to go down.
This one is for all the bragging rights.
All the marbles.
Get ready to shout out.
No.1! King o’ the Hill when our boy wins.
And your boy stays down for the full count.
Because whichever way you slice it.
It’s personal.
It may have taken 6 years to get both camps to sit down and come to an agreement on all the details, but the Floyd Mayweather, JR. vs Manny Pacquiao deal finally got done.
The “Superfight” we’ve all been waiting so long for is less than two months away.
Finally the argument as to who is the better fighter is going to be settled once and for all.
Where it matters. In the ring.
Among fans a veil of prejudice hangs between opinion and any attempt at rational debate.
Online discussions rapidly degenerate into a morass of name calling and abusive mudslinging.
I haven’t seen anything like this amount of vitriol between fans since Oscar De La Hoya went head to head with Julio Cesar Chavez, SR. in 1996 or Larry Holmes squared off with Gerry Cooney back in 1982. In other words. It’s bad.
A jet stream of endless analysis to determine who will emerge victorious has been ongoing for years. It has now intensified and gone into overdrive.
“Experts” who have never balled up a fist proliferate.
And soothsayers abound.
But the ever growing mountain of prophecies are subjective ranting at best, the outright wishful thinking of partisan fans who can’t bear the thought of their man losing the big one.
For the fact of the matter is no matter how much training is done, and game plan strategy dissected and pored over, not even the combatants truly know what they’ll be up against
until the first bell rings on the night of May 2nd.
Why?
Because neither boxer has ever faced anything remotely resembling the other.
In style or technical execution.
Ladies and gentleman. It looks like we have that rarest of animals to look forward to.
A pick ’em fight between two of the best boxers in the sport.
And in the end it might just boil down to good old fashioned guts.
Who’s willing to dig deeper? Who wants it more?
FIRE: The case for Pacman
Why does Pacquiao inspire such adulation in the Philippines?
Quite simply he represents hope.
Hope for millions of his countrymen that if you dream big and work hard enough you can succeed and lift both yourself and your family out of the kind of grinding poverty that keeps approximately 25% of Filipinos living below the poverty line.
Pacquiao himself understands what this means. He’s a congressman now, with a fast rising political career representing General Santos City, but he used to sell donuts barefoot on the streets to help his mother feed the family. He doesn’t forget where he came from.
And the country’s poor identify with him as one of their own because of it.
The Philippines endures several major typhoons every year some of which cause flooding, severe damage to infrastructure and loss of life. Add the Muslim insurgency in the south, a communist guerrilla faction in the far north, a high crime rate and the proliferation of illegal firearms, and it’s no wonder many Filipino’s dream of working abroad and making a better life for their families elsewhere.
When you land in Manila, the capital, the drive from Ninoy Aquino International Airport to the district of Paranaque City is often gridlocked with traffic. Jeepney’s, tricycles, motorbikes, cars, and gleaming SUV’s with blacked out windows, sit side by side on traffic clogged avenues, the poor and the rich united in their frustration at the inability to get anywhere on time.
En route, overlooking the highway, the Elorde Boxing Gym hints at the long and successful boxing tradition of the country.
Flash Elorde brought glory and honor to the Philippines in the 1950’s by winning the junior lightweight world title and defending it 10 times in a seven year span.
But the success of the nation’s pugilists under the Marquis of Queensbury rules stretches back even further to the days when a spectacular flyweight fighting machine named Pancho Villa took the US by storm in the 1920’s.
Once we get moving you can’t help but notice that Images of Manny Pacquiao are ubiquitous in this roaring metropolis. Whether it’s on a huge billboard endorsing a motorbike brand, or on the face of a phone card the “National Fist” is never far from the Filipino consciousness.
In 2001 a friend gave me a video tape, (remember those?), of a HBO boxing broadcast and told me there was a fighter on the card he described as, “interesting.” Turns out he was a master of understatement.
On the card a South East Asian fighter that went by the name Pacquiao fought the defending super bantamweight IBF champion from South Africa, Lehlo Ledwaba.
Pacquiao took the fight on two weeks notice.
The commentators were having trouble pronouncing his name correctly but it didn’t matter. Pacquiao tore through the champion like a hungry lion.
And oh boy could he punch.
This guy was must see TV!
Since then Pacquiao has fought his way into people’s hearts in a way Floyd Mayweather, JR. has been unable to do.
His aggressive style of fighting, and his electrifying victories over some of the biggest names in the sport, have seen him become a crossover star in both the US and the Philippines.
I was in attendance at the Cotai Arena, at the Venetian, in Macau, China when Pacquiao fought Brandon Rios.
Seeing Pacquiao fight live is an experience you’re not likely to forget.
I got to really see and appreciate the incredible angles he uses to set up his offense.
No other southpaw out there attacks in the manner Pacquiao does. His style of breaking through the opponent’s defense is completely unique.
Mayweather will be able to prepare for the southpaw stance and style but not the uniqueness of Pacquiao’s method of attack.
He’ll have to adjust on the fly. In the moment. If anyone can do it Mayweather can. But he might have to eat a couple of big left hands in the process.
And therein lies the danger.
Pacquiao definitely hits hard enough to hurt Mayweather, JR. IF he can catch him cleanly.
It’s a big If.
But boxing isn’t called the theatre of the unexpected without good reason. One punch can change everything.
Manny Pacquiao will have a whole country behind him when climbs through the ropes on May 2nd.
Some might say it’s unfair.
Come back to RSR tomorrow for Part II of: Manny Pacquiao – Floyd Mayweather, JR. – Fire and Ice
