Pacquiao Era of Greatness: The New Golden Age of Boxing

After the world witnessed the last two contrasting ages of boxing, namely, the Tyson "Bad as You Can Age" and De La Hoya's "Ho-hum Cutie-cutie Period," here comes the new golden age of boxing, the "Pacquiao Era of Greatness."

Let me first review what transpired in the last two boxing ages.

The Tyson age was dominated by heavyweights. Tyson was a one man wrecking machine.

Bad boys (literally) ruled the ring and knock outs were the name of the game. Tyson's brief stint in jail paved the way for other super "bad"stars to shine. Evander Holyfield, Riddick Bowe, and Andrew Golota ruled PPV in absence of the real king.

Highlights of the "Bad as You Can Age" were:

1.         Bowe's seventh round KO win against Holyfield in their trilogy.

2.         Golota disqualified for continuously hitting below the belt.

3.         Tyson biting Holyfield's ear.

Oscar De La Hoya's "Ho-hum Cutie-cutie Period" was dominated by "pretty" boxers and put a premium on protecting their faces and their 0 losses at all cost. The baddies were replaced by De La Hoya, Mayweather Jr., Morales, Barrera, Trinidad, Mosely, and Hopkins—the "boxing cutties."

An Olympic style of boxing dominated this period, where winning by judges' score cards was the "in thing."

With the exception of Morales, Barrera, and Trinidad, the so called Hollywood cuties failed to sustain the interest of the boxing public by continuously winning in the most boring style.

In De La Hoya's period, we saw Mixed Martial Arts, the pseudo-sport, enjoy its brief moment of glory because fight fans wanted to see real action in the ring.  

Highlights of the "Ho-hum Cutie-cutie Period" were:

1.         Felix Trinidad winning by points against the former unbeaten Oscar De La Hoya.

2.         Marco Antonio Barrera winning by points in his trilogy against Eric "El Terible" Morales.

3.         Pretty Boy Floyd Mayweather Jr. beating Oscar De La Hoya by split decision.

Even the highlights of this period will not match the excitement of any of Manny Pacquiao's earlier fights.

The boxing world should thank Mega Manny Pacman who is single handedly bringing back the old glory of the sport. Welcome to the "Pacquiao Era of Greatness!"

Boxers in this age like Cotto, Hatton, Valerio, Marga-cheat-o, Donaire, Darchinyan, and Pacquiao himself, dominate their opponents by beating them mercilessly inside the ring. Lightning speed and power punches best describe this period.

We are witnessing the once powerful WBC, WBA, WBO, IBF, or any other alphabet championship belts being disregarded in favor of the People's Championship or Ring Magazine's Championship belt.

Pound for Pound Kingship is the best championship ever contested. The good thing is, people respond with enthusiasm and shy away from watching dull boxing matchups. 

Highlights so far for the "Pacquiao Era of Greatness" are:

1.         Pacquiao's TKO of Morales in the last two of their trilogies.

2.         Pacquiao retires (for good) De La Hoya in the ring.

3.         Pacquiao's KO of Hatton in two. 

4.         Donaire's KO of Darchinyan in five.

This is the most exciting time in the history of boxing.

The following are possible boxing matchups we would all love to see:

1.         Pacquiao vs. Mayweather Jr.

2.         Pacquaio vs. Marquez 3

3.         Donaire vs. Darchinyan 2

4.         Cotto vs. Margarito 2

5.         Pacquiao vs. Cotto

6.         Pacquiao vs. Valerio

Pacman rules!

Pacquiao-Mayweather It May Never Happen

 Manny Pacquiao vs. Floyd Mayweather Jr. That's the fight every boxing fans are eagerly waiting. 

The last two boxers who wore the coveted P4P crown should  meet finally in the ring and not in the trash talking arena. 

The camps of Pacquiao and Mayweather are claiming to be the "numero uno" but who's the real King?

As if no one knows that the Pacman rules the square ring right now. Li'l Floyd issue of claiming what's originally  his, well, if you keep on believing in the Mayweathers, you're probably insane.

We are talking of right now, not yesteryears, not one year or two years ago, we are living now in P-E-G Pacman Era of Greatness. 

So why are boxing fans excited about this fight when the issue of P4P had already been resolve? Simple. We want  Pacquiao to punish and kill this trash talking Gayman in the ring. We all wanted to see the bloodied, disfigured Floyd Jr. being carried in the nearest Vegas hospital with his family, specially senior crying in shock. 

We want to celebrate with every Filipino people and boxing fans worlwide for finally getting rid of the whole clan of Mayweathers in boxing history. 

This fight will break all records in guaranteed pay, gate attendance and Pay Per View revenues. It will attract the biggest celebrities in any other fields. But sad to say this fight may never happen...

The following are the scenarios for the postponement of this much awaited bout.

1. Juan Manuel Marquez will beat Floyd Mayweather Jr. in their July 18, 2009  match.  This will definitely pave the way for the Pacquiao-Marquez 3.

2. Gayweather vs. Mama-Marquez turns out to be the most boring fight of the year. This will bring down the value of Li'l Floyd from top PPV moneyman to just another boxer fighting in late night TV special. Certainly Pacman would want to fight for the biggest draws available.

3. Miguel Cotto winning by Pacman-like devastation in his June bout. The possibility of a fight between Pacquiao and Cotto is always there, remember they're both fighting with Bob Arum's Top Rank. 

4. Shane Mosley will agree to fight Pacquiao in 80-20 share revenue in favor of Pacman. It is a possibility because Manny is a certified box office draw. Pacquiao may even exceed his income with a Gayweather fight with his 80% share for this fight and Mosley's 20% is a better payday than fighting any other boxer.

How about the question of Li'l Floyd avoiding the biggest competition there is? Well, in fairness to Junior, he did fight and won over Dela Hoya and Hatton. Off course you cannot fight everybody especially if there's little money involve.

It's not in the hands of Mayweather if the battle with Pacquiao will push trough or not it's all in the hands of the king of boxing, Manny "Pacman" Pacquiao.

 

Will the Real RP Team Stand Up

The Smart Gilas-Pilipinas national basketball team won their first match in a lop sided victory over the Sangmu Phoenix Korean Team in the ongoing FIBA-Asia Champions Cup. 

Maybe this basketball crazy republic would celebrate this opening win in Jakarta and bring hope to our dream of winning an asianwide FIBA backed  tournament.

 I would not rejoice prematurely, the real test would be against the defending champion Iranian Team and besides they won against a Korean team without an import.

Does this seudo-RP Team have a chance to bag the title? I don't think so. Why? Because we're not sending our best cagers. we're not even sending our second best team or even our third best.

Whether we like it or else, the best team that we have is the real RP team coach by Yeng Guiao. Why then we're not sending Yeng's boys instead? I DON'T KNOW! Ask Noli Eala about it.

Maybe, the SBP has a plan. What plan? That this Smart Gilas - Pilipinas Team would play together for two years without turning pro and join international competition whole year round to get the feel of the competition. 

And then what? And then, they will certainly go home defeated in every league that they intend to join. And by losing they will learn valuable lessons.

What lessons? That no matter what philosophy Toroman brings, this RP team will be short (literally) in international competitions. What will happen next?

Off course by 2011, all politicians masking as sports leaders would appear in TV networks and print medias, calling patriotic basketball cagers (who by the way all resides in the PBA) to done the national colors replacing the patsies (who?) , you guest it right, the Smart - alang Gilas Basketball Team.

Then its too late. Sports (by sports in the Philippines, it means basketball and boxing) leaders  would blame each other and will come up at a plan that finally, we will only send the best PBA players in International competition. Hooray! And this process  will go on and on and on and on. Why should we wait for 2011 for this realization? Why not start it now?

Is there any hope in our sorry case? Yes, it's all in the hands of Rajko Toroman. Maybe Toroman (would turn out to be the Freddie Roach of our hoop dreams) could infuse common sense in our Basketball  program. By hiring an ex Laker CJ Giles in the team, we will not start the tourney in a disadvantage. That's a good start, the FIBA Asia Cup allows reinforcement so it isn't against the rule. 

Maybe he can influence the RP team to try the route of naturalization. In international competition, we are allowed to acquire 2 naturalized players so why not play this to our advantage. We done it before and the likes of Allan Caidic and Samboy Lim shines  playing with Moore and Engeland.

Off course we should always send our best cagers to any international competition from now on. The mighty United States of America is doing it with Le Bron, Kobe and Dwayne leading their NBA superstars through it, why don't we hah.

The best formula for the RP team right now is to acquire two seven footer as naturalized players plus Yeng's PBA backed RP Team. Maybe its not the winning formula but it is the best we could offer right now.