MANNY Pacquiao is to fight for a cause when he faces Conor McGregor next year.
“I think I can help a lot of Filipinos if I’ll do the fight with McGregor,” our esteemed sportswriter Josef Ramos quoted Pacquiao as saying. “I will donate a huge part of my earnings to the people. That is my goal—to help the Filipinos.”
Hasn’t he been doing that for the longest time?
He’s just done it, again, distributing goodies to his constituents in his native GenSan City when he celebrated his 42nd birthday on December 17.
It has been a much-awaited ritual since he became a world champion on December 4, 1998, after knocking out Thailand’s Chatchai Sasakul to capture the World Boxing Council (WBC) flyweight title.
It’s been 22 years since and Pacquiao, now a senator, has remained world champion in the World Boxing Association (WBA) welterweight division.
And through all those 22 years, Pacquiao has established himself as the only eight-division world champion in boxing history.
If Muhammad Ali is the greatest of them all, then Pacquiao is arguably the winningest of them all, title-wise.
Will Pacquiao’s feat ever be surpassed, let alone equaled?
I doubt.
Floyd Mayweather retired unbeaten in 50 fights, but still, Pacquiao’s eight-world title plateau makes him practically unreachable.
Mayweather may boast that he beat Pacquiao in 2015 in the richest ($600 million) fight of all time.
But that was a fluke of a win since Pacman fought only with one healthy arm from the opening bell—the injury revealed after Pacquiao’s loss on points.
Anyway, back to McGregor. Who is this bloke again?
He is the undiminished Ultimate Fighting Championship star, who lost to Mayweather by a 10th-round technical knockout in Nevada in August 2017.
Although it was a farce to forget, the bout made Mayweather richer by $280 million and McGregor $130 million.
It is obviously for this similar promise of money that a Pacquiao-McGregor encounter may be palatable.
“I really want to experience fighting a UFC fighter,” Pacquiao told Josef, adding, “I work out every day as I never forget to take care of my body.”
McGregor is due to meet Dustin Poirier on January 23 in Abu Dhabi.
Let’s pray for a McGregor win—convincingly.
Otherwise, a loss could jeopardize the planned Pacquiao-McGregor fight in 2021.
Happy New Year!
THAT’S IT With LeBron James winning his fourth AP Male Athlete of The Year award, he has surpassed the “three-peat” feat of Michael Jordan. James has equaled the record four wins each achieved by cyclist Lance Armstrong and golfer Tiger Woods…. Condolences to the family of Teddyvic Melendres, the former Inquirer sports editor, who succumbed to Lou Gehrig’s disease (ALS) on December 25. He was a quiet man, always at peace with the world.