Pacquiao injury issue divides fans

Filipino boxing fans, who tuned in to BBC News the day after the fight between Manny Pacquiao and Floyd Mayweather Jr., must have been shocked   to hear   the   report of the British network.

The newscaster said the thousands     who paid so much   money to watch the fight went home   very disappointed because   they didn’t get their money’s worth.

The match had been so lopsided   from   start to finish,   he   said, with Mayweather   completely   dominating it.

He   sort of even hinted   that the audience,   who waited   five years and paid thousands of   dollars   to see   the much awaited battle, was   cheated.

Personally, it   was hard to fathom what this   dude   was   talking   about. Like most Filipinos, I expected   him to say that   the crowd was   very disappointed because all Mayweather did was run away from Pacquiao and clinch. That’s how it looked   to most of us.

Until   the figures from the   computer box showed otherwise—Mayweather had indeed dominated   the fight.

I   was about to question the integrity of the compu box, which I   suspected for awhile   could be tampered   with, but I was   stopped dead on my tracks by a call from a colleague who informed me that Pacquiao, for   the first time in his life, was being bashed on social media, after he admitted that he pushed through with the fight despite a   shoulder injury.

Indeed Pacquiao could have at least postponed   the fight until his shoulder was healed,   but he said he   did not want   to disappoint his   fans.

I believed him, but   many   didn’t. Those   who were his friends   and admirers before   the fight now turned   against him. And these are his countrymen.

They   said he and his team were thinking only   of the money he would earn,   which is why he did not opt to postpone or   cancel. The   fans who used   to idolize him now accused him of being   greedy “just like Mayweather.”

One of the   fans who watched   the fight in Vegas even convinced others who also saw the bout   to   file a class suit   against Pacquiao because   the   fight had not been fought fair and square.

I guess   the   fans most affected and most angry   were those who had placed bets on the Filipino superstar, like   the Cambodian Prime Minister who   refused to pay   the $5,000 he wagered   and lost on Pacquiao.

Did Pacquiao do the right thing by admitting after the match that he fought with   an injury? Only time   will   tell.

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(Our condolences   to Barako Bull   cager Jeric Fortuna whose   father Eleandro died at the age of 48 after a massive stroke. His remains lie at La Funeraria Paz of Manila Memorial Park in Sucat.)