Why Manny Pacquiao can’t (afford to) lose

You’re free to say anything about Floyd Mayweather Jr. but it’s a sin, a sacrilege, out in Metro Manila streets to swear or even suggest Manny Pacquiao could lose when the two best boxers of their time tangle on May 2.

Out in the Mandaluyong  City wet market, this reporter saw for himself on Friday how one vendor lost several customers after she hinted that, yes, Pacquiao was not too sure of winning.

Many of Pacquiao’s fans, who have come to start venerating the Filipino boxing deity, also believe their idol can’t lose because God’s on his side.

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Pacquiao would be wrapped in divine light come fight time?

A survey of championship preferences would tend to show that these Pacquiao fanatics could move on if, for example, slammed and swept by another super typhoon.

A Pacquiao defeat is, however, wholly unthinkable.

How can that be? cried longhaired Joel Negro, his dark skin similar in tone to that of Mayweather’s.  The burly fish vendor honestly thought Mayweather would be waging war with a bad hand, if not with dissipated legs.

Alejo Matoos, 86, swore Pacquiao would certainly win because his idol is too fast and too strong. However, the old native of Lawaan, Eastern Samar, who stammers on bent creaky legs vending balot and kropek off the Sky Cable compound in Barangay Vergara, stalled when asked what he knows about Mayweather.

“Wala pong alam (nothing),” he replied blankly.

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It’s hard to doubt that these unshakeable Pacquiao worshippers feel as one that they’ve invested their hopes and dreams on the Filipino boxing superhero.

There was actually a question raised unilaterally that wondered if Pacquiao could win without scoring a knockout.

Trainer Freddie Roach, who has been swearing Pacquiao would just be too powerful and fast for Mayweather to contain, has since tempered his initial knockout win forecast by explaining Pacquiao was now also ready to win by decision.

There was practically nobody around who thinks Pacquiao, the underdog, could be defeated.

Just the same, there was one stray aficionado who wondered if Pacquiao could take even half as many of the punches he unleashes in a bout, considering that the fighter revered as a national treasure had been beaten, knocked out a total of three times, by boxers inferior to Mayweather.

Explained Joseph Dumuk, a tried and tested analyst and statistician from Bauang, La Union: “Taking fewer punches, or half of what he unleashes, would seem to be a tall order for Pacquiao. Winning without a KO would be a longshot, unless Manny will win many rounds convincingly. My heart and prayers are for him, though.”

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So far, there was practically nothing from the Mayweather camp to detail his full worth, or dispute what Roach has maintained that the unbeaten American boxing superstar has retrogressed.

The most that Mayweather would reveal was that he has worked truly hard in order to be REMARKABLE.

“I do love God and God loves us all,” Mayweather said.

He said he’s a professional prizefighter and his role is to remain focused, be at his very best, against the best.

Honestly, it was Mayweather’s way of saying that the superfight won’t be decided by God.