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| Bradley should be saying, "He's the champ." |
The bitter
taste of being served something fishy
by rick olivares pic by chris farina
Several years ago, one of our
househelpers suddenly began yelping with utmost joy. She screamed. She danced.
She cried. She went plain nuts. And that left us all perplexed. It was as if
she had won the lotto. Only she did. Yes, she did.
The first thought that popped into my
head was, “Oh, wow! This is incredible. Good for her.” The second was, “Can I
be your house helper?”
Seconds later, the rapture turned into
wailing and despair when she found out that all six numbers were not the
winning numbers in the Metro Manila lotto but in the Visayas!
She was inconsolable. It took her
about 30 minutes to get over it (I am sure she didn’t get sleep that night) and
after that she mustered a smile over hot soup. She was embarrassed about her
freaking out.
Well, yesterday’s Pacquiao-Bradley
fight had that similar feel. It was a win only it wasn’t. There was a hole in
that bag where Manny Pacquiao’s win was located. It was pilfered by Duane Ford and CJ Ross, the two judges who thought that Tim Bradley won the fight. And for
the millions and millions who knew that Pacquiao won were served up a knuckle
sandwich. We as a Filipino nation had our hearts and pride ripped from us.
With all due respect to Bradley, the
fight did not have any sense of epic-ness such as the bout between Pacquiao and
Oscar de la Hoya or the animosity between the fighting Congressman out of
Sarangani and Juan Manuel Marquez. That doesn’t mean that Manny didn’t take the
fight seriously. He tagged Bradley but couldn’t really put him away with those
flurries he’s known for. Credit Bradley for being able to weave in and out of
trouble. Now since Bradley maybe won one, two, or even three rounds, how was
that enough to win?
How was that decision arrived at? I
sensed no danger in the match for Pacquiao. Sure he got hit but in a fight
everyone gets hit. But it was Bradley who got rocked. I personally scored it
119-109 for Pacman. And yet, no matter how the Compu box scores had Manny
outslugging Bradley it was the Californian who came out the winner.
Was this karma for the
Pacquiao-Marquez fight? No. That one could have gone either way and it wasn’t
one-sided like this. If that was then this is a terrible terrible way to make
it up. I remember how after the Marquez fight fans were so divided on who won and
some pro-Manny supporters said that the only voices who matter – the judges –
saw it the champ’s way.
And now it has comeback to bite Manny
back in a shocking and horrific way.
Something doesn’t read, smell, and
sound right. Heck, all my senses are screaming robbery. It’s Ocean’s 11, 12,
and 13 combined. It is so bad that I demand that judges Duane Ford and CJ Ross be investigated and that their bank accounts be checked. Even Bradley’s wife
thought he lost… ah, maybe not. But she doesn’t count. For all that happened on
Sunday with all the sporting events, the loss weighed heavily in the back of my
mind. He is after all, our very own Global superstar, so his win is our win and
a loss, is ours as well. The decision is so bad that thousands of miles away,
the food I ate didn’t seem all that palatable to me. It’s disgusting.
I am not sure about how boxing
contracts are drawn up but why was there a rematch clause in the contract
between the two fighters? Seriously. This isn’t Erik Morales. This isn’t Miguel
Cotto.
After the third fight with Marquez and
the forever-talked about possibility of a Floyd Mayweather bout seemingly in a
galaxy far far away, I thought that Manny should have hung up his gloves. Like
many athletes, it is hard to resist the lure of one more time. Muhammad Ali
paid for it with Parkinson’s disease. I cringed when Michael Jordan made his
ill-fated comeback as a Washington Wizard. Roger Clemens came back and while he
did well, added more fuel to his ongoing investigation for using steroids.
But Manny, whether due to off-ring
distractions or not (it is said that he watched Game 7 between the Boston
Celtics and the Miami Heat while waiting for his fight to begin), has failed to
pulverize foes since his decimation of Antonio Margarito (that’s Shane Mosley
and Marquez). Is this a sign of slippage? With everything that is going on in
his life I am not sure. He has managed all of it well save for the last fight
against Marquez. He claims he was focused on this match against Bradley. Yet he
was not his overpowering self. Some point to his going up and down the weight
scale and that is rubbish. He has done that before and come up aces. He did
seem slow and unable to put away a boxer who is not in his class. Only there’s
the rub. He lost. Now if this is his last fight, how hurtful is that to his
legacy? Of course, it is now imperative to fight at least one more time to
rescue that legacy.
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