Held yesterday was the fight of the century; Floyd Mayweather and Manny Pacquia went at it. Mayweather, who was defending his title, and Pacquia, who was hungry to steal it were ready to fight after months of preparation. Ending after 12 rounds, Mayweather won with a unanimous decision from the judges, by a wide margin of 118 points to 110. Some people found the fight intense and suspenseful, but they also speculated the judge’s decision on who should have triumph. From my personal perspective and the perspective from my peers, we believed that the underdog, Pacquia, owned the fight from every angle, pinning Mayweather to the ropes of the ring, and aggressively attacking him. However, I am not writing this blog post to criticize the judge’s decision. Unfortunately, Pacquia didn't win the fight, but he won my respect and the respect of millions of people who watched the fight.
Even before both fighters entered the ring, during the entrance of the arena, people can observe the clothing of both fighters and their opening scene. Manny Pacquia entered the stage singing gladly to his Philippine song “Lalaban Ako”, a motivational song, who he created and dedicated to the Philippine people. He was also wearing a t-shirt that said, “Jesus is the true name of the lord”, and once he entered the ring, he went to a corner, kneeled down and preyed to God. This was abnormal in a boxing event. I have never seen an entrance a fighter, who walks through the arena with so much aspiration, happiness and spiritual charisma. This entrance shocked me, and shocked many others, one of whom was my father, who later the next day asked me if I seen the entrance from last night. That little moment had me curious to research a little bit more about Pacquiao.
Manny Pacquiao was born in Kibawe, Philippines. At a young age, like most of the other children in the Philippines, was exposed to poverty. Having minimum education, at a young age dropped out of high school, also he had short amount of food and selfsame clothing all because of extreme poverty. Pacquiao didn’t have much to expect from life, but he was always close to Christianity. He was taught boxing at a young age, and he was talented. But, he would always tell the public that it was God that helped him to become a great fighter. He would always thank God for his success, quote “ I want to let the people know that there is God who can raise someone from nothing into something. And that’s me. I came from nothing into something and I owe everything to God. He gave me this blessing. It’s all credit to the Lord.” You don’t need to be a religious person to empathize and acknowledge the aspiration of Manny’s charisma. One can thank God, others can thank their parents, their teachers, their brothers or sisters… it can be anybody or anything.
What I understand from his going to church pictures or these quotes, is that Manny never changed his way of being after all the success and fame. Many people, especially boxers, unfortunately change their way of being after fame. They are led to the dark side of having power and money, and instead of standing on their principle values that brought them to success; they use values that would look cool or values that represent a stereotype of “I am the man!”. Those human beings forget that there are people that suffer from hunger, poverty and health. The flow of money and fame changes their real identity, and it is a shame.
It’s incredible how Manny Pacquiao was able to avoid those temptations, and that is a major reason why many people like him. As many people said after the fight, “Manny lost the fight, but he won our hearts”. Manny is a champion, and a role model to many young people, like myself. I am going try to take his strong personality to adapt it to my learning at school. These past few months I have been putting a lot of work on my academics; I am trying to learn as much as I can and achieve the highest grade. If I don’t achieve the grade that I want to get, I won’t enrage in fury. I will be persistent and try again next semester. But, if I do achieve my goals, I am going to maintain my humble personality; I don’t want to end up walking on the road of false emotions and character. Losing my character is losing my friends, my family…myself. It is my duty to preserve my character and build upon it to make it stronger. Pacquiao is a talented boxer, but he is also a great teacher, a teacher that teaches us all a crucial lesson about the importance of principles and character. Others and objects like money, cannot mold or change your personality; your personality is molded by your character and principles.