Erle Frayne D. Argonza
Pacquiao just won his latest fight versus Margarito Teves. Kudos to our grand global champ!
What can I say of Manny Pacquiao, I can but think of a plethora of accolades for this humble fighter-turned-global athlete. Not only that, today he is also a legislator of the House of Representatives of the Philippine Republic or RP, where he is expected to champion advocacies for the marginal classes where he came from.
The fight was really a predictable one. Like Pacman’s fight with Clottey, analysts and sports forecasters were of the opinion that Pacquiao will take the throne for his 150-lb class, though the victory will be more of a decision win rather than a knockout.
Even before the fight began, I was already in a mood to pity the Mexican boxer, hoping that he won’t ever get whacked so bad in the head that can tragically take him down the canvass. I knew that he would become a veritable punching bag like most of Pacman’s past title adversaries, which indeed happened as forecast.
As to what was the key factor behind Pacman’s victories, this latest one included, let me re-echo what I’ve stated in previous articles about him: sports science was the cutting edge factor. Freddie Roach constituted a Team of experts, with him at the helm, who ensured a highly studied and calibrated training for Pacman.
Such a training is indubitably state-of-the-art, which is parallel to those trainings in other sports that are science inclined. Sports science calibrates everything, from nutrition/diet to the fight kinetics. I am very keen on this myself being a one-time competitive powerlifter, and I know the discipline needed to win in a competition.
Pacquiao at the commencement of his career was a “bara-bara” fighter whose training was more of a physical education or P.E. format. It took quite some time before he shifted his format, with the help of his trainer F. Roach who would become his permanent trainer and career counselor as well.
Pacman incidentally possessed a high level of emotional intelligence marked by excellent learning attitude. High E.Q. plus high physico-kinetic intelligence are his core inner traits that would match with the rigorous coaching and scientific training from Roach & Team Pacquiao.
Without doubt, Manny Pacquiao is the best boxer of all time, as he won world champ in a total of eight (8) divisions. His agility and acumen will be remembered for all time and will be the subject of boxing pre-fight studies in the future.
He is a much better boxer than Muhammad Ali, to my very own surprise and glee. Surprise because I’d never imagine a fellow Filipino gaining global prowess as he did. Glee since he makes me so proud of him and of my being a Filipino.
His career marks a turning point in Filipino sports trainings, demonstrating thus the enormous power of sports science as a cutting edge tool for winning. His ascent to global quality fighter has inspired many Filipino boxers to go his path to global fame too, a reality that undercut the Mexicans and Thais as the top contributors to world class boxers.
So prestigious has the Filipino boxer become that even in Mexico any top-ranked Filipino boxer is revered as a hero. And that, my friends, is another surprise phenomenon for me and my compatriots. Knowing how patronizing the Mexicans are toward their compatriot athletes, I really could hardly figure out how they’ve come to openly revere Filipino boxers who are welcomed to their places like heroic kings.
Conclusively, Pacman will end up as a man for all seasons. He will be well studied in sports science institutes and universities. Biographies after biographies of him will be writ by enthused writers. Even long after he’s gone, the tots who comprise his global fans today will be narrating Pacman’s feats to their great grand children. Gurus of success, the likes of John Maxwell, will also be discoursing on him as an exemplar of career and financial success.
Mabuhay si Manny Pacquiao! Mabuhay ang Pilipinas!
[Philippines, 15 November 2010]
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Showing posts with label entertainment. Show all posts
Showing posts with label entertainment. Show all posts
Monday, November 15, 2010
Sunday, June 29, 2008
PACQUIAO BEATS DIAZ, RP BOXING SUPREMACY ASSURED
Erle Frayne Argonza
Good afternoon!
Elation and euphoria are back in the Philippines and across the borders today as Manny Paquiao beat David Diaz in the lightweight division of world boxing. Flat on his face in the ring’s floor, Diaz looked like a whacked baby in comatose, ready to face the surgeon for some serious eye and facial injuries sustained during nine (9) rounds of unrelenting offensive from the unbeatable Manny.
From the first through the ninth rounds, Manny Paquiao exhibited superior punching and maneuvering ability and was the clear upper hand points-wise for all of those rounds. His superiority in both speed and power, added to his outstanding maneuvering skill, made him throw every kind of punch on the pathetic Diaz, candidate of America, with ease.
On the 5th round of the game, my compassion as a yogi-mystic began to surface while watching with eyes glued 105% on the TV screen. My compassion was, of course, addressed towards Diaz, whose face already sustained bleeding as early as the 2nd round, and I wished that Manny would knock him out on the 6th round as a matter of compassion. It would be cruel for any professional boxer to go on throwing deadly punches on an enemy who is almost down, and should, in my mind, work out to knock out the opponent early enough so as to minimize heavy injuries that could lead to death at the worse.
That knock out came finally on the 9th round, which made me felt a feeling of relief, and so I exclaimed my jubilation for my compatriot’s victory and compassion. Of course, I thanked God that Diaz is still intact, and was able to stand on his feet at least, thus assuring no further need for surgical operations or whatever. It was just a fight, may this fighter practice more. But like the rest of my kabayans, Manny has warmed our hearts so much again, and on this day he’s the one hero who had united the nation for at least some couples of hours.
Manny is now assured of his Hall of Fame status, with his gaining of a 4th title victory, notwithstanding the awarding to him of the most prestigious World Boxing Council or WBC belt at the 135-lb category. He is also impeccably Asia’s best, as it was the first time that an Asian won four (4) world titles in his career, thus ensuring Asia it’s place in the globe as a continent worth watching for.
Finally, and this is what has given us great pride, Manny’s latest victory has ensured Philippine supremacy in boxing from here on till maybe at least ten (10) years to come. Manny was not just representing himself, but rather he’s the chief icon among couples of others in the middle down to lower weight categories. The coterie of top-gun boxers have made Manila the team to beat, and had swept off Mexico and Thailand as the previous holders of this sports tiara.
For all boxers as a whole, Manny Paquiao’s latest victory had added prestige to the lower boxing weight divisions, and the spotlight of boxing had all the more been focused on these divisions away from the middle-to-heavy weights. He joins the coterie of titans such as De La Joya who earlier gave so much prestige to the lower-to-middle divisions.
Mabuhay si Manny Paquiao! Mabuhay ang mga Filipino boxers! Mabuhay ang Inang Bayan!
Writ 29 June 2008, Quezon City, MetroManila]
Good afternoon!
Elation and euphoria are back in the Philippines and across the borders today as Manny Paquiao beat David Diaz in the lightweight division of world boxing. Flat on his face in the ring’s floor, Diaz looked like a whacked baby in comatose, ready to face the surgeon for some serious eye and facial injuries sustained during nine (9) rounds of unrelenting offensive from the unbeatable Manny.
From the first through the ninth rounds, Manny Paquiao exhibited superior punching and maneuvering ability and was the clear upper hand points-wise for all of those rounds. His superiority in both speed and power, added to his outstanding maneuvering skill, made him throw every kind of punch on the pathetic Diaz, candidate of America, with ease.
On the 5th round of the game, my compassion as a yogi-mystic began to surface while watching with eyes glued 105% on the TV screen. My compassion was, of course, addressed towards Diaz, whose face already sustained bleeding as early as the 2nd round, and I wished that Manny would knock him out on the 6th round as a matter of compassion. It would be cruel for any professional boxer to go on throwing deadly punches on an enemy who is almost down, and should, in my mind, work out to knock out the opponent early enough so as to minimize heavy injuries that could lead to death at the worse.
That knock out came finally on the 9th round, which made me felt a feeling of relief, and so I exclaimed my jubilation for my compatriot’s victory and compassion. Of course, I thanked God that Diaz is still intact, and was able to stand on his feet at least, thus assuring no further need for surgical operations or whatever. It was just a fight, may this fighter practice more. But like the rest of my kabayans, Manny has warmed our hearts so much again, and on this day he’s the one hero who had united the nation for at least some couples of hours.
Manny is now assured of his Hall of Fame status, with his gaining of a 4th title victory, notwithstanding the awarding to him of the most prestigious World Boxing Council or WBC belt at the 135-lb category. He is also impeccably Asia’s best, as it was the first time that an Asian won four (4) world titles in his career, thus ensuring Asia it’s place in the globe as a continent worth watching for.
Finally, and this is what has given us great pride, Manny’s latest victory has ensured Philippine supremacy in boxing from here on till maybe at least ten (10) years to come. Manny was not just representing himself, but rather he’s the chief icon among couples of others in the middle down to lower weight categories. The coterie of top-gun boxers have made Manila the team to beat, and had swept off Mexico and Thailand as the previous holders of this sports tiara.
For all boxers as a whole, Manny Paquiao’s latest victory had added prestige to the lower boxing weight divisions, and the spotlight of boxing had all the more been focused on these divisions away from the middle-to-heavy weights. He joins the coterie of titans such as De La Joya who earlier gave so much prestige to the lower-to-middle divisions.
Mabuhay si Manny Paquiao! Mabuhay ang mga Filipino boxers! Mabuhay ang Inang Bayan!
Writ 29 June 2008, Quezon City, MetroManila]
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