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DESPITE his colds, 40-year-old Sen. Manny “Pacman” Pacquiao has proven that 40 is indeed the new 20 as 112 of his 568 punches landed on the 29-year-old Adrien “The Problem” Broner.
A Philippine Daily Inquirer piece (“Broner pins blame on planned Pac-May 2” by Marc Anthony Reyes, Jan. 21, 2019) quoted Broner as saying, “Oh I beat him. Everybody out there knows that I beat him. I controlled the fight, he was missing. I hit him clean more times, I beat him.”
Hmmm. What fight was he watching? Because he seemed to treat it as a spectator sport as he was all talk and no action.
But watching it live on pay-per-view almost reached the boring phase as Broner played safe in most of the 12 rounds. He did manage to throw 295 punches or a little over half of Pacquiao’s, of which only 50 landed.
Fifty versus Pacquiao’s 112—calculating who controlled the fight doesn’t need math wizardry.
Pre-fight, Broner had a beard which was blamed for his weight issues which, in turn, were blamed for his tantrums. There was also concern on how the beard would affect the fight, plus the difficulty of treating a wound with all that hair covering it. The beard was gone, however, on Saturday night (Sunday morning in Pinas).
Pacquiao’s fists are as strong as ever and right after his latest victory, he was asked about a possible rematch with Floyd Mayweather Jr. who defeated him in 2015. “Tell him to come back to the ring, and we will fight,” Pacquiao replied.
Mayweather, who was right there at ringside, was then asked to nod for a yes, but he responded with a poker face instead.
“Can’t read my / Can’t read my / No he can’t read my poker face.” That could have been Mayweather’s intention.
Broner fueled the rematch speculation by explaining his loss: “What they trying to is they trying to get that money again with Pacquiao and Floyd.”
The 41-year-old Mayweather retired in August 2017. “He’s living his best life, traveling, running his multiple businesses, spending his hard-earned winnings,” said Mayweather Promotions Chief Executive Officer Leonard Ellerbe. “He’ll be 42 come Feb. 24. Enough is enough. What good is it to earn that money if you aren’t around to spend it?” Which should be words of wisdom, too, for Pacquiao whose wife, Jinkee, said, “I had stopped trying to convince him to retire.”
There’s a meme where Pacquiao has three world championship belts with him while saying, “May bagong bag ka na naman, Jinkee.” For the fight last weekend, she wore a Valentino dress that costs a little over P270 thousand and a Hermes mini Kelly that’s worth about P400 thousand and beyond.
Pacquiao did retire in April 2016 when he ran for senator. But the lure of the boxing ring must be the same as Gollum’s “precious” Ring in “The Lord of the Rings.”
A detached retina, which could be the only injury Pacquiao suffered after his latest fight, may finally convince him to retire, though. But if it turns out to be a minor corneal scratch as revealed by a member of his entourage, then, he can continue fighting until his world championship belts are bursting out of his mansions.
And his mansion in Los Angeles was again robbed while he and his entourage were in Las Vegas. But the loss won’t put a dent in his piggy bank which now has $10 million from his latest fight.
Boxing is dangerous to one’s health, thus, it is wise for a boxer to retire early and let the younger generation have their chance to shine. But perhaps Pacquiao remains hopeful for his victory in a future Mayweather rematch.
As for his political future, he said, “I don’t have that in my mind right now. I have no plans to run for president. I’m happy serving the people as a senator and in giving honor to the country.” Does “giving honor” mean more fights to win? Hmmm.
In 2016 when he won as senator, some people doubted his sincerity in becoming a legislator despite the fact that he did retire from boxing in April of that same year. He then said, “Napag-isip isip ko na kung nagawa ko ang pagdisiplina sa sarili ko sa career ko kaya na-achieve ko ang na-achieve ko sa boxing, ito pa kaya? Kaya kong i-focus ang sarili ko para sa pagbabago ng ating bansa.”
Well, promises are made to be broken especially when millions of dollars are dangling overhead for his next fight.
There’s one thing we did notice: Pacman’s English has greatly improved as evidenced by his replies to post-fight interview questions.
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