On Boxing and Pacquiao

Pacquiao

BOXING is an addictive viewing habit. People from all walks of life are drawn to the sport. Coffee shops in five-star hotels and the carinderias in the dingy squalors are always abuzz with the latest boxing analyses, may it be about Rahman and Lewis or the travails of our local fighters. But why is it that pugilists come mostly from the lower-income brackets? I haven't heard of old rich choirboys picking up the sport. Well.

Take the case of Manny Pacquaio, our only world champion (IBF, flyweight). On November 11, he went to a bloody war in San Francisco, California against Agapito Sanchez of the Dominican Republic, himself a flyweight holder but with a lightly regarded WBO belt. After the fight, as Pacquaio himself recounted, he could hardly walk and was almost blind in one eye. Not that he was severely outpunched and overpowered, the Latino simply fought dirty. Sanchez was using his elbows to pull out tricks. In the second round, he maneuvered a head butt that opened a nasty cut in Pacquaio's right eye. Under the rules, it would have been automatic point deduction. But that didn't happen.

In the succeeding rounds, a series of low blows from the Sanchez arsenal unfortunately weakened Pacquaio's lower extremities, a punch in the thigh there and a slug in the knee there. In the fourth round, Sanchez pushed Pacquaio down with his forearm and our man dropped to the canvass writhing in terrible pain. Martin Dinkins, the referee, almost didn't allow Pacquaio his required five-minute rest. At that point, I thought it would be game over and Pacquaio would not get up.

But he did. Until the sixth round when the big wound on his eye was profusely gushing with blood. After a consultation, Dinkins called a halt to the proceedings, having the scorecards in consideration. Before the announcement of the result, Sanchez was seen celebrating in his corner. For what? The low blows? With the scores being even, the fight was declared a draw. Pacquaio kept his belt and the Philippines still has a world champion.

That encounter was left open for criticisms and a barrage of questions. How low can a person succumb to? Why, why Dinkins didn't disqualify Sanchez? How filthy is boxing as a sport? I don't want to offend Latinos since Sammy Sosa, the charming baseball player, is also from the Dominican Republic. Forget it, his race has nothing to do with Sanchez robbing a bank.

Maybe that is why boxing is anathema to rich kids; they would rather engage in basketball or baseball. I can't think of any other sport. We're not world class in tennis. Bowling is not an Olympic sport. While in boxing, one won't only get battered to death but there would be plenty of strange meetings with forces from the dark side.

Last week I received an email on the tribulations of former boxing champ Luisito Espinosa. It was sad. I hope Pacquiao would play his cards right. Boxing is cruel to has-beens. Young fighters from the outset are bereft of education to fall back on when career is done. When left in the hands of unscrupulous handlers, it could be downhill from there. Well.*

You may email the author at zands@philippinestoday.net.