Pacquiao injury issue divides fans
Filipino boxing fans, who tuned in to BBC News the day after the fight between Manny Pacquiao and Floyd Mayweather Jr., must have been shocked to hear the report of the British network.
The newscaster said the thousands who paid so much money to watch the fight went home very disappointed because they didn’t get their money’s worth.
The match had been so lopsided from start to finish, he said, with Mayweather completely dominating it.
He sort of even hinted that the audience, who waited five years and paid thousands of dollars to see the much awaited battle, was cheated.
Personally, it was hard to fathom what this dude was talking about. Like most Filipinos, I expected him to say that the crowd was very disappointed because all Mayweather did was run away from Pacquiao and clinch. That’s how it looked to most of us.
Until the figures from the computer box showed otherwise—Mayweather had indeed dominated the fight.
I was about to question the integrity of the compu box, which I suspected for awhile could be tampered with, but I was stopped dead on my tracks by a call from a colleague who informed me that Pacquiao, for the first time in his life, was being bashed on social media, after he admitted that he pushed through with the fight despite a shoulder injury.
Indeed Pacquiao could have at least postponed the fight until his shoulder was healed, but he said he did not want to disappoint his fans.
I believed him, but many didn’t. Those who were his friends and admirers before the fight now turned against him. And these are his countrymen.
They said he and his team were thinking only of the money he would earn, which is why he did not opt to postpone or cancel. The fans who used to idolize him now accused him of being greedy “just like Mayweather.”
One of the fans who watched the fight in Vegas even convinced others who also saw the bout to file a class suit against Pacquiao because the fight had not been fought fair and square.
I guess the fans most affected and most angry were those who had placed bets on the Filipino superstar, like the Cambodian Prime Minister who refused to pay the $5,000 he wagered and lost on Pacquiao.
Did Pacquiao do the right thing by admitting after the match that he fought with an injury? Only time will tell.
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(Our condolences to Barako Bull cager Jeric Fortuna whose father Eleandro died at the age of 48 after a massive stroke. His remains lie at La Funeraria Paz of Manila Memorial Park in Sucat.)
