My History as a Boxing Fan

I know that a lot has been said about the subject but...
I'm technically a boxing fan since childhood. In this country, the most popular sports have to start with a B. Basketball, boxing, billiards. The most popular and I think the sport where Filipinos tend to excel is boxing. Me, I've been familiar with most of the rules due to watching since I was ten and also through anime (Hajime no Ippo), so I'm familiar with the terms, and some of the boxing styles out there. The real ones, mostly. But then that's not really the point.

As long as an athlete is a Filipino aiming to be a world class champion, almost always, Filipinos will root for them. This includes even FIl-ams, or foreign born Filipinos. Naturally, a typical Filipino would make it his duty to watch every Filipino fight telecast in worldwide TV.

Another natural thing to do would be to just declare that they got cheated when they lost. I dont know why this is a natural reaction to most Filipinos, but this is usually their coping up mechanism. Probably because we've been opressed many times that we feel like the victim at almost every situation we get. It is not something new.

Especially in the boxing world, most of us feel like these boxers need to knock out the opponent or else the latter will win. Because judges cheat or whatever. We get frustrated when they dont get knocked out. As a matter of fact, boxers trying to win by points is rare in the Philippines. You either knock them out or you lose.

So then, I can only think that these reactions are somewhat natural and nothing out of the ordinary. The only difference is that we have the power of the internet now.

When the MayPac fight ended with Manny losing, almost every Filipino said that he was cheated. over the past three days we were recognized by people all over the world just because of this one guy, and mostly, for being too emotional about the result. A lot of comments about people being overnight boxing experts emerged. I thought that it was only natural. This happened countless times before. The only difference, I think, is that this time, there is social media available to every frustrated Filipino to express their feelings.

I've known Manny Pacquiao since I was in college, and maybe way before that. During that time, there were a lot more boxers attempting to get the world title, and most of them won. People like Onyok, Penalosa and every Filipino boxers where shown on the local television channels and we used to watch it as a family over Sunday lunch. I remember my grandmother saying that there's this new guy who's really good, and we watched him win his fight by knockout in three rounds. That guy was Manny. Back when he was still a feather weight boxer, when he was still wearing his rosary after every fight, and when he only has two sons. 

Since then, we watch him win easily by knockout at every fight he got. His fans increased. He became a household name, and even his mother started to get famous. He became rich, and even his kids get featured on magazines and tv shows. When he became a champion he announced his intention to go up a class, and he became a champion there too. He got I think five belts during that time. What am I going at at this point? I forgot. Hahaha.

Well, you can easily tell that we saw him develop as a boxer. There were low points too, when he lost and no one came to welcome him during his return (it happened once), and his gambling problems, his problems with having a third party, getting sued by the BIR. He became a household name.

By this time, he is already a congressman, a basketball player, an enterpreneur and a pastor. I think every kid here knows his name. Which is only natural for us to root for him at every fight he has.

What am I trying to say and why the need to give this long boring history as a boxing fan? Well, for one. I think that I'm not alone in having this experience. Almost every boxing fan has this experience, in a way, and for me, I guess Manny really grew on me. Like a household name. Some even him consider him a hero.  And you can just imagine the pain we feel, when your heroes get beaten somewhat. It's something you can't get over with easily.

And because of that, I kind of understand just how much Filipinos just went on and raged in the internet. This whole issue would be easily forgotten about a week or so. But for now, just let us be.