‘So MP lost the fight and his campaign has taken a hit but it need not be a fatal one. Anyway, he comes home with a guaranteed prize money, yes? Which is timely to fund a campaign independent of big donations! Not bad.’
THE fight is over, and it didn’t go the way it was supposed to. Manny Pacquiao was supposed to emerge victorious in his August 21 fight in Las Vegas, ride the wave of public elation to the filing of candidacies, and fire up his base for the campaign.
But he didn’t win. He didn’t even get a draw. While he ended the 12 rounds on his feet, it was a unanimous decision that may have ended his boxing career.
For good. Finally. Finished. Period. And finally, again.
I have warned some of my social media friends, however, not to write MP’s political obituary, only his boxing one. It is a defeat, yes, but it need not be a fatal one.
Think about it: in the arena called Philippine politics, what have been fatal to a political career? Accusations of corruption? Womanizing? Homosexuality? Driving without a license? No. No. No. And no.
Not even splattering social media with photos of yourself in skimpy underwear sinks a campaign. And anyone who makes a big fuss about it even runs the risk of being accused of envy.
So MP lost the fight and his campaign has taken a hit but it need not be a fatal one.
Anyway, he comes home with a guaranteed prize money, yes? Which is timely to fund a campaign independent of big donations! Not bad.
And he comes home to still some brouhaha about the DOH. Didn’t he say something about the DOH before leaving for Las Vegas? When he made a statement while seated behind a huge desk piled high with papers? And which piqued the President — but not enough for the latter to challenge Pacquiao to a fistfight?
Wait, wait … that’s it! That’s why Manny lost!!
You see, at his age he needed to be not just 100% focused on the match. He had to be 110 percent focused against a younger, taller and more powerful opponent who only needed to be at 90 percent when fighting an older man.
Even if that older man is eight-division title holder Manny Pacquiao himself.
So, our boy had to be at 110 percent, but was he? Of course not. Because at the back of his head he could not forget the DOH and the red flag that the COA has waived in the public’s eye. He was right all along!
And so even as he tried to get his power naps or focus on his moves, once in a while his mind will be subjected to a flash of an idea about the DOH and how it didn’t properly spend billions of pesos for the welfare of our people. Who wouldn’t be distracted by that if one truly cared for the people?
And I now suspect that as he climbed the ring to engage in what probably is his last professional boxing match Manny was also already thinking of going home and picking up from where he left off. Because he has to; because the people he cares for need him to; because it’s the right thing to do.
And so he wasn’t 110 percent. And against a younger and bigger opponent that can spell the difference between a draw and defeat. As we have seen.
(Maybe he should have mentally imagined he was up against someone in the DOH? Fighting Ungas instead of Ugas? But I digress.)
When he gets back let’s hope he is at 110 percent for his next big fight.
The one that is truly “para sa inyo ang laban na ito.”
