Pacquiao & PBA: Questions, ?,?,?

NO QUESTION about it: the foul moments that saw Davao City Mayor Rodrigo Duterte cussing Pope Francis on live television—thereby getting crushed raw in all forms of media—hardly dented the solid clamor for the iron-fisted city executive to seek the presidency in the 2016 national elections.

There were, in fact, Duterte admirers out in the city streets who felt that this is the time to rally even harder behind the besieged city mayor.

This was what surfaced the past week during my daily regular morning walk to the church and the marketplace in hometown Mandaluyong.

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There were two other subjects—Manny Pacquiao and the PBA—that the mingling masa, mainly around the city wet market, was very curious about.

Experts and plain sports fans out there wanted to know the real score.

“Is the PBA falling apart, nasira na ba?” asked car air-conditioning expert Enard G. as he slowed down to take a turn on his black motorbike along Blumentritt St.

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What do you mean?

“Why did Chito Salud suddenly step down as league CEO and president?”

That’s not an easy question. All we know is that Salud had resigned as commissioner,  before lawyer Chito Narvasa, a tried and tested basketball authority, was taken in.

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“Did they have to break up after a clashing of minds?”

That’s even harder to determine. All we remember was that incident in Dubai where Narvasa categorically rejected Pacquiao as a bona fide basketball player, stressing that the congressman from Sarangani was, first and foremost, a boxer.

It was Salud who fought for Pacquiao to be enrolled as a playing-coach for the Kia Motors outfit.

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Anyway, one fellow most amazed at the sudden elevation of so-so world welterweight champions Tim Bradley as solid candidate for Pacquiao’s next foe is boxing scholar and respected columnist Jingo Quijano of Cebu.

Quijano was intrigued at the report that Pacquiao’s next opponent would be made known from Puerto Rico on Friday (Saturday in Manila).

The choice for Pacquiao’s supposed final opponent, before he calls it a career, was supposed to be announced last week yet.

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Then, in a flash, former Pacquiao stablemate Amir Khan had reportedly been stricken out of the Pacquiao derby.

It’s now a choice between Bradley and the sensational unbeaten WBO junior welterweight champion Terrence Crawford (27-0, 19 KOs).

Both Bradley and Crawford fight under Bob Arum’s Top Rank outfit.

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So the questions proceeded to pour in:

Did they like a trouble-free final assignment for Pacquiao?

Was the Pacquiao camp deathly afraid of the young, strong, tigerish Crawford?

Why the inferior Bradley if Pacquiao, as he had declared, wanted to end his boxing career with a bang?

Questions, assumptions, speculations, ?, ?, ?