AS usual, I get the same question all the time: Will the Manny Pacquiao-Floyd Mayweather 2 push through?
And, as usual, too, I say, “It will push through.”
Many say it will again transform from a fight to a fake when the bell rings. Much the same way as when the two first met on May 2, 2015?
That forgettable night in Las Vegas, Mayweather simply toyed with Pacquiao to win all 12 rounds in “The Fake of The Century.”
When the rematch finally gets going in December, hopefully in Las Vegas again, the only difference could be that Pacquiao might be 100-percent healthy.
In 2015 Pacquiao fought Mayweather concealing an injured shoulder—a crucial point that the Pacman revealed only after the fight.
When they meet again, that’d be a thing of the past.
Boxing is the most forgetful of all sports.
Pacquiao is turning 40 on December 17. Mayweather is 41.
In boxing, age is immaterial.
If we get to watch senior citizens banging each other up atop the ring, fine. No one’s going to enjoy an undue advantage.
It’d be an entirely different thing altogether if one of them is much younger than the other.
An utter mismatch is downright avoided if we pit Pacquiao and Mayweather.
With them fighting, boxing has shown respect for balance.
Both have shown signs of slowing down in their recent fights. Fine. That equalizes matters—their narrow age gaps a bit of a redeeming factor.
While admittedly, Mayweather might be a bit faster than Pacquiao, that is just a minor margin. Pacquiao can counter that liability easily with punches more telling than Mayweather’s.
Pacquiao has the world title but staking it matters not much.
They will fight chiefly for the money. That’s all there is to it.
Now, in the event Pacquiao upsets Mayweather—that isn’t far-fetched if you ask the Vegas oddsmakers—that’d make it even-steven for both at 1-1.
Would that not set up a third fight? A trilogy all over again?
Never mind if the crowd would be dominated by the wheelchair-bound, the hearing impaired and the PWDs as a whole.
This is boxing. Where money talks all the time, all of the time.
THAT’S IT In my column here last week, I wrote that Michael Que won the Tokai Cup Classic, one of the major golf tournaments held yearly in Tokyo. Wrong. It was Angelo Que who authored the triumph worth a whopping P10.22 million. How could I commit such grievous mistake when in fact, Angelo Que, as written here last week, was one of my four players in the Philippine squad that I had captained when the country competed in the 1998 World Team Golf Championship in Santiago, Chile? Maybe, time has started to play tricks with me? Hey, that Chile joust was 20 years ago and the brain must be teeming now with information both vital and non-vital. Although Angelo might not have minded it as Michael is his brother, still, I offer my deepest apologies to Angelo, whose world-class swing is a combination of the smooth and seamless strokes of Ernie Els and Fred Couples. I thank my good friend Alex Sison, who was the first among the many concerned readers to call my attention about the error…. Looking forward to the dinuguan cum Cabanatuan longganisa breakfast with Col. Sergio Austria, Jake P. Ayson and Admiral Luisito F. Fernandez. Cheers!…. Happy trip to my compadre Marvin Velayo and his wife, Pia, who will leave today (October 10) for a 20-day vacation to European countries like Italy, Austria, Switzerland, Holland, Belgium, Germany and France in the company of Baby Velayo. We pray for your safe and sound journey. Enjoy!