MANILA, Philippines — Taxi drivers will not brake for anything less than a Pacquiao-Mayweather match-up.
“Mas importante ang boundary (It’s more important to earn money for the taxi rent),” Jun Sanchez, 52, of Novaliches, Quezon City quipped, choosing to listen to music oldies on the radio instead of the broadcast fight that boxing champ and Sarangani Rep. Manny Pacquiao lost to Mexican Juan Manuel Marquez.
He said that he needed to earn for the Christmas and New Year holidays. “It is his (Pacquiao’s) fourth time with Marquez. I do not think it will be any different from his previous fights,” according to Sanchez.
He told the Philippine Daily Inquirer that if Pacquiao was matching up with Timothy Bradley or Floyd Mayweather Jr, he would have stayed home and watched the bout.
Another cabbie, who likewise chose to listen to music than tune into the fight, remarked that Pacquiao’s matches had lost their appeal to him. Still another commented, “There is nothing new to see. It is all the same.”
By 1:30 pm, when Pacquiao hit the mat, Jun Muyana, 38, a maintenance worker, who watched the bout at a grill in Kamuning, Quezon City, said that the loss was a given. “He fell on the mat in the third round,” he explained, adding that the boxing champ’s habit of fiercely attacking his opponent in the few seconds left of the match proved to be Pacquiao’s downfall.
Another grill patron told the Philippine Daily Inquirer that he thought Pacquiao would win. “Marquez’s face was already swollen from the punches. Pacquiao still looked unhurt. It was really so close, two seconds away from the bell,” he remarked.
Quezon City Police District (QCPD) director Mario dela Vega expressed surprise at Pacquiao’s loss and said that Marquez might have been able to study his opponent’s weakness.
“He (Marquez) found an opening between Pacquiao’s one-two punch combination. He jabbed with the right and Marquez managed to sneak in a punch to the chin and blocked Pacquiao’s left,” he said.
The QCPD director Pacquiao gave his all in the fight and he had nothing to be ashamed of his loss. Filipinos, he said, would always be proud of him.