I don’t remember the first boxing match I saw on television, but I do remember seeing most of the Muhammad Ali, George Frazier, Joe Foreman, Leon Spinks fights in the heavyweight division; of Roberto Duran, Tommy Hearns, Marvin Hagler and Sugar Ray Leonard in the middleweight class during the prime of their careers. I remember the feeling one experiences when watching a fight, the emotion that runs through your body, the tension in the air and the overwhelming joy when the fighter you support seems to be losing only to win when he knocks out his opponent with a stroke of luck or when a boxer wins by split decision. It was the golden days of boxing.
Currently, however, the sport needs resuscitation. The top heavyweight division doesn’t have an established name that can draw a crowd like Mike Tyson did in his prime. Oscar de la Hoya, the one with the good looks and good enough boxing skills to earn him an Olympic gold during his fan years, was the big box of the lighterweights division, but he too was distracted by the accompanying brilliance. to the fame. Enter a small fighter who had tremendous power in both fists and incredible speed who hails from a country that produces world champion boxers at the lightest weights, Manny Pacquiao.
It is a true rag story to achieve and his current success as the most profitable boxer at the lighter weights today has inspired some of his compatriots to take up boxing as a sport in hopes that they will also achieve Pacquiao’s success as a means to get out. his life of poverty. And all the aspiring boxers who dream of that fight that will give them a big payday have lined up at Pacquiao’s door, hoping for that opportunity. And after convincingly beating De La Hoya via TKO during their fight last December, the line may get longer.
Two of the most talked about names to be next in line for a boxing match against Manny are Ricky Hatton from the UK and Floyd Mayweather, Jr. from the USA, who until his retirement was considered the best fighter pound by pound. . Hatton has the inside track. But the champion seems to like boxing Mayweather, as Pacquiao’s trainer Freddie Roach put it. The latest boxing reports say that the fight against Hatton might not go ahead as both sides cannot seem to agree on the portfolios that each will receive from the fight. If not Mayweather or Hatton, who will it be then?
Whoever ends up being Pacquiao’s opponent, I look forward to Manny’s continued success. Every time he goes to the ring, a country that has such a diverse culture and people as the Philippines suddenly joins in and even for a day, he forgets his worries and problems as he watches his compatriot fight for the glory of a nation.