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Manny Pacquaio Update
ASIAN BEAT NEWS SPECIAL
November 21, 2010
by Carol C. Smith, Contributor
I have never been a sports fan and when Asian Beat News asked me to cover the media
conference on the Pacquiao/Margarito Fight, I went out of duty. I watched the Pacquiao/Clottey
fight last March and had the privilege of helping the Pacquiao Team help with driving
his concert band from their hotel to the stadium, to Tony’s sport club and back
to the hotel. It was not that I was interested to meet Manny personally, he is far
too busy to attend to everyone. I respected that boundary.
But here are two articles from the internet that really struck me, not as a would-be
sports fan, not as a former public servant, but as a person considered by the DFW
Filipino community as one of its dedicated supporters. Despite the fame and wealth
underneath his feet… Manny has subconsciously revealed his true nature: he is an
instrument of change, especially for the Filipino people. When I was with the Philippine
government, served as liaison officer for the Malacanang Palace, I have seen the
flurry of words by politicians who speak their pieces but you can see the falsity
in their eyes. This is what struck me with Manny. His eyes speak the truth… Here
are the articles and I hope, just like me, you get to see the other side of the
fighter.
Pacquiao-Margarito: What We Can Learn From The Humility, Empathy, and Grace of Manny
Pacquiao
Posted by michaeldsellers on November
14th, 2010
Another Pacquiao fight — another drubbing of a much larger opponent, and Pacquaio’s
legend as a boxer grows. But the fight between Manny Pacquiao and Antonio Margarito
produced not just a memorable pay-per-view experience worth every penny of the $64.95
it cost — it produced, for this observer at least, some moments of clarity that
helped me better understand what makes the Filipino “National Fist” so much more
than just a great athlete.
The True Tale of How the Fight Unfolded, and How Pacquaio Had to Fight Through Early
Adversity to Gain Control
First, if you didn’t see the fight but have read about it, you probably have read
that Pacquiao dominated; that he won every round or almost every round; that he
cut Margarito to shreds so much so that everyone, including Pacquaio, had legitimate
concerns about Margarito’s health and whether the fight should continuing the later
rounds. That rendition of the fight is accurate up to a point — but it fails to
capture the genuine peril that Pacquaio faced in the early rounds, the genuine threat
that Margarito represented, and thus the challenge that Pacquiao overcame to prevail
against Margarito–a fighter who was in the best shape of his life and weighed 165
to Pacquiao’s 148 on fight night–an advantage of not just 17 lbs but 12% of of body
weight–a Goliath to Pacquiao’s David and a disgraced Mexican warrior on an epic
quest for redemption Could Margarito have been more prepared or more motivated?
I don’t see how. That’s what Pacquiao was up against.
