IF BOB Arum and Floyd Mayweather Jr. don’t trade punches first or if Mexican boxing fans agree to give way to a fight involving a non-Mexican on May 2, it looks like the big battle between the undefeated American and Manny Pacquiao might push through in May next year. Mayweather was quoted in a report last week that he wants the fight to happen.
The money part is the tricky angle to this deal and Mayweather will squeeze everything he can out of it. The possibility of his unscathed record being blemished is definitely there. The thinking might be that if that’s going to happen, it might as well be worth it money-wise.
What the two fighters will earn for less than an hour inside the ring, assuming the fight goes the distance, is mind-boggling. The negotiations will be over millions of dollars, not exactly loose change. Thereafter, no other fight for a long time will be able to approximate the millions Mayweather and Pacquiao will net unless the two decide to fight anew.
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Hundreds of fighters in this country who sweat it out daily in many stinking gyms cannot even imagine what it’s like to earn a million dollars. They’ll probably get a small taste of it with a hastily arranged fight in Thailand or Japan and come home with a rotten hometown decision. But they plod on, climbing the ring in provincial fight cards to earn spurs and pesos to put food on the table.
In Muntinlupa City last Saturday, several such dreamers fought for three Philippine titles and the chance to advance their careers.
There was tall and muscular Dan Nazareno Jr., who won the welterweight title with a first-round stoppage of Dennis Padua. Nazareno has won 20 and lost 11 with 17 knockouts. In a country of flyweights and featherweights, Nazareno at about 5 feet 9 is an odd-man out and running out of foes. Matchmaker Gerry Garcia says the plan is to find more opponents for Nazareno in Australia and other places.
The other dreamer was Benezer Alolod, who kept his light flyweight crown with a majority decision over Renren Tesorio. The lively Muntinlupa crowd was divided over the outcome and some booed the result. But Alolod was throwing the heavier leather after Tesorio took the first round with combinations that stunned the champion. Then it was Alolod who took control of the fight the rest of the way.
Another dreamer was 23-year-old Danilo Gabisay, who scored a sensational TKO against Angelito Mirin for the Philippine Boxing Federation super bantamweight crown. Gabisay floored Mirin early in the second round with a right cross, then decked Mirin twice in the ninth, prompting the referee to stop the contest and further harm Mirin.
Gabisay had problems making the weight the day before. “Hindi ko po natiis ‘yung gutom (I was so hungry),” explained Gabisay on why he was about two pounds overweight on the scale. After being allowed to sweat it out, Gabisay was still slightly over the limit but was allowed to fight the next day.
Gabisay’s boxing mission is one echoed by many. “Sana magtuloy-tuloy na ito, para makatulong ako sa magulang ko (I hope this continues so I can help my parents),” Gabisay said as friends and family crowded him for photos after the fight.
The Muntinlupa fighters will most likely never come close to what Pacquiao stands to earn in the Mayweather fight or achieve what he has accomplished. But their dream lives on to squeeze a decent living from an unpredictable and often ungrateful sport.