lui is in heaven

It is already early Monday morning in Manila as I type this. The much-awaited Pacquiao fight ended yesterday with all of my countrymen cheering and practically kept the streets empty and quiet during the fight which was from 12noon to 2PM Sunday November 15. This was the live feed schedule where people watched from cinemas, bars, and restaurants that offered live action for a fee ranging from P500 to P1000 (Note: $1=P46-47), cable and mobile TV, and places that offered free public watch in the community's barangay gym or any alternative spaces that can accommodate as many people as possible. Those who chose not to watch on any of these venues just listened to the radio, twits from friends, or just waited for the delayed telecast on TV from 2-4PM with replays in the evening of the same day. I chose to do the latter.

As we all know by now, Pacquiao won his 50th fight and the first in the world to win seven different weight divisions! Pacquiao truly deserves to be featured in Time magazine. Pacquiao's victory is really a simple surefire formula of discipline, hard work and determination. Pacquiao's grueling training before any fight shows his determination to be in the best fighting form that spells his success. He learned it the hard way when he got lax one time and lost a fight. From a poor boy who worked his way to the top and now made millions guaranteeing his financial security and his family. Pacquiao is now preparing to retire and carefully chose his final battle before he lose everything. Sports like boxing can truly mean losing everything. Pacquiao's Puerto Rican opponent Miguel Cotto did not only suffer swollen and bloody face, but bruised ego, and possibly hurt his fighting career. But the deeper damage are the injuries left from several fights have can have life threatening complications. This was the reason that Pacquiao's mother Dionisia was practically in deep prayer, preferring to pray than watch any of her son's fighting matches and constantly telling her son to retire with his earnings and end his boxing days. For in reality this is really what the sports is all about: fighting. It is not the usual sports that pit athletes to break world-record speed, agility, strategy, intelligence to win a competition. Boxing is truly a primitive sports where players have to literally fight and possibly maim his opponent to win. When the referee ended the game, Pacquiao went to his corner and knelt in thanksgiving prayer. And then something happened: Miguel Cotto went to Pacquiao and gave his winning opponent a sincere hug in recognition of a real fighter. Only the boxers know the strength of their opponent. Only the two players know the strength and the weakness of each other while in the ring. And possibly only the two of them knows the compassion and accommodation they have for each other. And like Pacquiao's mother, I also pray for all athletes and hope that sports will only focus on the individual's excellence in a sport that will not require players to physically hurt another just for the win. And because when one wins in a bloody fight, there really are no winners. . . . All photographs here were taken from our small TV tuned to GMA 7 during the delayed telecast.