THERE WAS a lot riding on Manny Pacquiao’s fight against Shane Mosley last Sunday.
At the very least, it was the first time Pacquiao fought with yellow gloves, a symbolism that could not have been lost on anyone. Indeed, a symbolism that could not have been lost on President Benigno Aquino III’s enemies if the unthinkable had happened and Mosley had somehow managed to beat the champion. The gloating would have been intolerable, Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo’s minions coming out full force to say that Mr. Aquino and Pacquiao do not mix, Pacquiao’s inspiration or spiritual guide was, and is, Arroyo.
As it was, it was only the second time I watched a Pacquiao fight with unadulterated enthusiasm. The first was his fight against Antonio Margarito last November. Before that, I couldn’t watch any of his fights without the baggage of thinking his victory would result again in the Arroyo regime’s conscripting it to promote its validity or legitimacy. As it was too, Pacquiao did not wear yellow gloves last November. Truly, had Pacquiao lost this time around, the political consequences, quite apart from its impact on national pride, would have been enormous.
Just as well, it was also the first time Pacquiao had come out to endorse an organization that strove to uplift society, specifically the poor, which was Gawad Kalinga. He expressly said in his press conference that he would be partnering with GK, whether as congressman or as iconic figure he did not specify, there was no need to, to build houses for the poor and help pluck them out of their plight. “My biggest fight,” he said, “is not in boxing but to end poverty in my country.”
You could almost hear the snide remarks if Pacquiao had lost the fight. GK’s own enemies would have said that God had finally abandoned Pacquiao because of his newfound alliance with an organization that had turned away from Him. Or they’d have said that some things just don’t go together, boxing and housing being one of them. Or they’d have said being at the cutting edge of life blunts one’s cutting edge in the ring. Or they’d have said if Pacquiao could not even beat Mosley, how could he possibly hope to beat Poverty? Poverty is by far the bigger, swifter and stronger opponent. It doesn’t offer an easy target, it isn’t so easy to put down.
But Pacquiao did win, the sun is out, the birds are chirping, and all’s well with the world. Where does Pacquiao himself go from here?
As boxing goes, he has nowhere left to go, he has nothing left to prove, he has no opponents left to fight. Shane Mosley spent 12 rounds in the ring trying to avoid him, Floyd Mayweather has spent every round outside of it trying to avoid him. A Pacquiao-Mayweather bout is never going to take place. Dan Wetzel wrote an insightful column some days ago about the tragedy of the “brilliant Pacquiao” being wasted in his prime, and by a cruel twist of fate. He’s just too good for everybody else right now, and there’s no worthy challenger in the horizon. The image I myself have is that of Alexander at the edge of the world. When he came to it, he wept, for there were no more worlds to conquer.
Well, Pacquiao isn’t likely to weep, if only because he’s just too cheerful to feel the angst. In any case, he doesn’t have to, for there are far more worlds to conquer, or far bigger challenges to meet, or far grander fights to win. To this day, my biggest boxing hero is Muhammad Ali, and my biggest sports scene is him holding the Olympic torch with hands trembling violently from Parkinson’s disease being applauded fervently by the world. He was one who saw that there were far more worlds to conquer, there were far bigger challenges to meet, there were far grander fights to win. He did fight them, and he won.
Pacquiao’s own capacity to do that is enormous. Certainly his capacity to impact on this country is so—for good or bad. He is beloved by his countrymen, he is worshipped as hero. Fortunately for President Aquino, he fought Margarito in November last year. Had he done so in April, we might very well have a different president today, the one he endorsed. The immediate aftermath of his victories brings with it a national euphoria not unlike Edsa.
I did say after his victory over Margarito that I didn’t buy the AFP’s proposal to turn him into a peace negotiator. I still don’t buy it. That is wasting his iconic stature to unite the country. Politics is not Pacquiao’s strongest suit, as witness the ease with which he made the transition from Arroyo to Aquino. With everybody else that does that, the reason clearly owes to political expedience or plain opportunism. With Pacquiao, you suspect that the reason simply owes to the fact that he doesn’t really understand partisan politics, or care a hoot about it.
That is the reason I completely buy his decision to partner with Gawad Kalinga and advance its cause. Or to enter the ring with Tony Meloto, in lieu of Freddie Roach, as his coach to fight the biggest fight of his life, to meet the biggest foe of his career. That is non-partisan, that is non-political. Or at least it transcends them. Fighting poverty is something he cares about, or could. He himself has said he understands what poverty means, having come from it and having fought his way through it. He himself has said he wants to do something not just for his constituents in Saranggani but for all his countrymen, having known the grief of want and the joy of overcoming it. He himself has said he has seen how fearsome poverty is, but he has never run away from a fight, he will face it, along with his country’s poorest of the poor, and defeat it.
He’s already one of the best, if not the best, in boxing. He goes on to do this and he’ll have a crack at claiming the one title Muhammad Ali does and he (still) doesn’t. That title is, “The Greatest.”