What matters in Sports

[Jeff]

The Manila Standard Today
dEC. 17, 2007


MANNY Pacquiao has come out against the protest action resorted to by the country’s sports leaders over the alleged biased judging in the Southeast Asian Games boxing competition, which resulted in the Filipino men’s team surrendering to their Thai opponents.

Pacquiao said he was “sad when I learned the news about the walkout of our boxers.”

He said that as a boxer himself, he knew what it was to feel cheated but felt that the officials should have “complained but accepted the results because that is part of our life as an athlete. The walkout was not good.”

Pacquiao, who along with the sports chief backer businessman-sportsman Manny Pangilinan of PLDT-Smart, met with the boxers prior to their departure and gave them a morale boost, expressed his views in his column in a tabloid and which was carried by philboxing.com

He recalled telling boxers to “fight as long as you can and don’t think about your opponent. No matter what he does, fight.”

Pacquiao said he felt the boxers wanted to fight but they had no choice but to follow the officials’ decision since they felt our fighters were disadvantaged. He said even if we sent our class B boxers, if they had “trained well, we would still have won. We cannot always be walking out because we are cheated,” adding that there are many chances for us to make amends.

Pacquiao cited his own battle with current WBC super-featherweight champion Juan Manuel Marquez, who he dropped three times in the first round but the result was a draw.

“There was nothing I could do because the fight was over and a decision handed down. That is why in my re-match in March, I will make amends by doing everything to make sure that this time it won’t be a draw.”

Pacquiao, who celebrates his 29th birthday in General Santos City today, also referred to his loss to Erik Morales in their first fight. “I thought about what I had to do to beat him and did it,” said Pacquiao, who won both the re-match and the third fight in what turned out to be an epic trilogy for fight fans.

He then advised the boxers “not to think about what happened but think about the future fights.” Ronnie Nathanielsz

Remarks:

What happened in Thailand walkout is not a right thing to do for a sports minded person. For me, what they did is a sign of cowardice. Pacquiao is right. It doesn't matter whether you are cheated and mocked, the importance is we showed to them our bravery and decisiveness to fight the odds. Di na bale matalo, importante we showed to the world that we are not chicken.

[Bill Gregory]

.....but without wishing to change the topic from boxing, here is a great article about a Filipino who is overcoming tremendous odds at the age of 14!

http://www.chessbase.com/newsdetail.asp?newsid=4313

[Bill Gregory]

........you may be interested in this list from the BBC Boxing team which places Manny No 2 in the world and describes him as the most exciting on the planet.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/boxi...gs/default.stm

One thing is for sure, he never gives up despite the odds and while I do not think boxing is a good or sensible career, for all his attributes Manny may be the best role model there is for our youngsters.

[Jeff]

........you may be interested in this list from the BBC Boxing team which places Manny No 2 in the world and describes him as the most exciting on the planet.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/boxi...gs/default.stm

One thing is for sure, he never gives up despite the odds and while I do not think boxing is a good or sensible career, for all his attributes Manny may be the best role model there is for our youngsters.

Yes, you are right. Manny came to a simple, poor and low profile broken home family but he never surrendered or gave up during his early days. He keep on fighting not only in the field of sports but also being a true man. He never showed fear against odds instead he possessed fearless attitude until to the last ring.