By Babatis Banda: Against the odds, against all adversity, whether by chance or by design, this little man stood up, asked for a strong back rather than a light load ….slowly but painfully wriggled his way out of poverty and rose from the masses to the elite.
Pacman, as he is fondly known by his kinsmen and around the world, is the first Asian to have made it this big in sport and in his country, he is revered next to a god. His popularity is unquestionable amongst his people and his recent achievements in the ring have helped catapult his popularity further and evidenced by his election success as a congressman, something he had earlier failed to achieve. There is no doubt that many of his countrymen and in the region, look at him as a messiah of some sort, a beacon of hope and an example of success. Manny Pacquiao truly deserves the respect and the love of his people.
Manny Pacquiao has fought the best and won against the best. He has had also his fair share as a victim in the squared ring, a thing that is not surprising considering how brutal this sport is. It is no doubt that Pacquiao today sits on the crown, propped up by his admirers sympathizers and of cause, the crooked group of businessmen that is so skilled in sniffing opportunity for the obvious reason. The overriding factor is that, Packman is not just an ordinary sportsman, he is a patented product of his nation, an ambassador loved passionately by his own. It is then common sense that any comparisons with his fellow sportsmen will attract passions beyond just sport. Criticism is usually looked at as an attack on the very Nation’s fabric, tantamount to burning a nation’s flag and a declaration of war.
Hard work rather than skill has definitely been the Key to Manny’s achievements and recent questions about drug abuse may have just brought an interesting dimension to the sport. I can’t help but think the drug issues are just mind games. Mind games are not new to boxing, and many other sports to that fact, they are part and parcel of the game and the game can be won both outside and inside the pitch and it is important for a sportsman to learn how to handle mind games just as it is to have good training.
Looking at the status of Manny Pacquiao as the ambassador for his people, does this mean that he is invincible? How much would you gauge his popularity against just an ordinary citizen who is in the sport? I have heard this interesting proverb “no matter how much fat the pig has, it will never become an elephant”….is this the reality for Manny against the unbeaten Floyd Mayweather Jnr?
Never mind the decoration, the awards and the titles, they may signify achievement rather than greatness. The wounded solder may be decorated and awarded for the wounds sustained on the battlefield…and he may not even have killed a single enemy, but is decorated for his braveness or what he endured to survive. There is another proverb which says that “just because the snake is at rest, does not mean the frog can jump over it safely”
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