Sorry, dimmed Super Fight is 2014 top story
Jimmy Alapag was listed as the most sensational Filipino in the 2014 Fiba World Cup in Spain by Yahoo.com, and the choice was appropriate.
He did not do it alone, but it was Alapag’s heroics, his endgame long, long shots, that had the basketball world taking note of the significant return of the Philippine national team on the world stage.
Of course, the big basketball story for the Filipino fan was the rise and fall of Gilas Pilipinas, which had a commendable stint in the Fiba World Cup, before crumbling in fragments in seeking the gold medal in the succeeding Incheon Asian Games.
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Boxing saw Manny Pacquiao avenging a controversial points loss by mauling the flamboyant Tim Bradley in Las Vegas, before he closed his 2014 ring campaign by making a floor mop of over-decorated American Chris Algieri—downed six times—in Macau last November.
Boxing dream boat Nonito Donaire Jr., 2012 Fighter of the Year, figured prominently but, this time not with a sensational win, but in an awful knockout loss against the big and sharp Nicholas Crawford of Jamaica in what was easily the mismatch of the year.
There was considerable celebration after Cebu-based world light flyweight champion Donnie Nietes scored a big win to surpass Flash Elorde’s previous longest seven-year reign by a Filipino as world champion.
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Sorry, but as a whole, it was a non-fight that stood out as the loudest, if not the best, story of the year for the Filipino fan.
Manny Pacquiao’s desperate chase of a clash with the supremely elusive Floyd Mayweather Jr. was the most avidly followed nonstunner in 2014.
Mayweather did amaze with a noisy jump-up call for Manny Pacquiao to duke it out with him on May 2. Mayweather’s dare was expectedly lapped up by the entire boxing world.
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The taunt had a seismic effect, with over-excited Las Vegas bookmakers putting Mayweather a 3-1 favorite ahead of official bout announcement, which never came.
Last heard of, Mayweather was, however, still holding the boxing world hostage with his frantic evasiveness—to the point of admitting he’s a rich coward—in avoiding Pacquiao.
In fact, as the old year headed to a close, Mayweather all but categorically stated he won’t be caught dead facing Pacquiao.
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“My health is more important than anything else. I come first. Self-preservation. Because what? When my career is over, and I got hurt because of something that happened in a fight, I can’t come to you and say ’I need money,’” Mayweather stated.
Mayweather also cried: “If the fight don’t happen, so be it.”
No need to read between the lines to know that the Super Fight, at the close of 2014, was as good as dead, and the ever-cowering Mr. Mayweather couldn’t care less.
(To be concluded)
