Hong Kong (on board Cebu Pacific flight AJ190)—Cries of “foul, trash, farce” against the sham of a world welterweight boxing championship in Macau on Sunday started to resonate as the tailend of Manila boxing fans headed home on Tuesday.
Many die-hard followers of WBO welterweight champion Manny Pacquiao made it a point that their displeasure over the tasteless bout be heard or felt as they lined up to board this flight.
There were two overriding sentiments: One, the American challenger Chris Algieri was not in Pacquiao’s level; two, the bout was a certified mismatch.
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“It’s a fight between a kindergarten pupil and a college professor, pangit talaga (real ugly),” swore Orly Garcia, a geologist from Nasugbu, Batangas, as he and the other passengers prepared to board the flight through Gate 504 of the vast, orderly Hong Kong airport.
Garcia took a break from a project in Laos to catch the bout, billed as Clash in Cotai II, expecting an exciting boxing theater starring Pacquiao, his idol for over a decade.
The chatty, keen-eyed Batangueño said he had been intrigued by all the fantastic praises heaped upon Algieri by fight promoter Top Rank, headed by the sly Bob Arum.
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Lured by the expert packaging of Algieri, successfully peddled off as a budding superhero, a modern-day Cinderella Man, Garcia rushed home, bought a plane ticket at the last minute on Saturday, the eve of the bout.
He would be in for what he called a “most stupid, disheartening experience.”
Never again, he cried, for as long as Arum continued to use Pacquiao “to cheat boxing fans” all over the world.
“Pinakapangit sa lahat, it was the worst of Pacquiao’s fights,” Garcia seethed.
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Garcia could not fathom how Arum has remained in the boxing mainstream despite what he had done against boxing.
“I wonder, bakit, no reports had been made of his latest treachery,” Garcia asked, adding Arum must’ve been a very influential operator.
Garcia also wondered if there’s no higher authority to put Arum in his proper place.
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Anyway, as this reporter reached home after a long, chilling overnight wait at the Hong Kong airport, he was swarmed with protestations over the irrelevant boxing championship in Macau on Sunday.
The masa was unanimous: Arum has taken the boxing world for a ride, again.
Algieri, slammed as a raging coward masquerading as a fearless warrior of honor, was an insult to Pacquiao’s solid, shining stature.