2014: Super Fight = Super Scare

FLOYD Mayweather Jr. practically sounded the death knell for the dream Super Fight when the unbeaten American world welterweight boxing champion announced he would not risk getting hurt inside the ring by fighting Manny Pacquiao.

To repeat, Mayweather had cried: “My health is more important. I come first. Because, when my career is over, and I got hurt in the ring, I can’t come to you and say ‘I need money.’”

The core issue: Mayweather,  through all the false claims, the counter-charges, was supremely scared to climb the ring with Pacquiao.

He couldn’t care less, he continued to slur the nobility of the Sweet Science, for as long as he kept his cutie neat record.

He couldn’t care less if he got ridiculed and openly branded a coward.

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Running scared, in the Mayweather book, is also playing it wise.

Funny, but although 2014 exited after having planted panic in an American champion’s punished heart, the New Year was ushered in with reports of about a dozen fires around the metropolis; also with news that the Super Fight was far from totally burned out.

One report, credited to Pacquiao adviser Michael Koncz, said negotiations were going on behind the scene between the Mayweather and Pacquiao camps.  A subsequent report however stated Mayweather was seeking to sign up Miguel Cotto for a rematch in early May.

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With that, allow us to quickly complete a stalled review of sports year 2014:

Out in the PBA, San Mig Coffee completed a Grand Slam, but the biggest, loudest applause in the pro basketball backyard went to Manny Pacquiao and the Kia Motors team, which staged a thunderous debut at the Philippine Arena in Bulacan.

The basketball year headed to its final month with the tragic news of the legendary Samboy Lim being felled by a stroke before lapsing into deep coma. Lim’s family was to confirm that Samboy was a victim of depression, caused by, among others, his unceremonious sacking as official of the Ginebra team. So far, there was nothing clear how Samboy got shooed out of team practice, and sent packing up with no explanation or back pay benefits whatsoever.

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Sporting joy was delivered, first by figure skater Michael Martinez, 17, from Muntinlupa, who amazed at the Sochi Winter Olympics last February;  BMW rider Daniel Caluag, a Fil-Am, saved the day for the beleaguered Philippine contingent by landing the lone gold medal for the country in the Incheon Asian Games;  archer Gabriel Moreno, 16, teamed up with a Chinese shooter to bag the mixed category gold medal in the World Youth Olympics; grandmaster Wesley So topped the 24th North American Chess Open in Las Vegas.

Meanwhile, “Pagpupugay”  at the Resorts World last June was a class act all its own, with an unforgettable and moving tribute to the greatest Filipino athletes of the last hundred years.

The last sports year closed out with ailing Philippine sports crying uncle, courtesy of Philippine Olympic Committee president Jose Cojuangco with his move to call in foreign coaches for respective national teams to the Singapore Southeast Asian Games this year.