I don't like boxing, but I like Manny Pacquiao
December 14, 4:56 PM
by Jerilyn Dufresne, Chicago Mental Health Examiner
The hard working champion (AP Photo/Mark J. Terrill)One thing I’m not is a boxing fan. But I think I’m a fan of Emmanuel Dapigran Pacquiao, better known as Manny or Pacman. He’ll be 30 years old in a few days and has been fighting for the better part of his life.
What makes me like him? Not that he beat Oscar De La Hoya with a TKO in round eight. Nope. As I said, I don’t like boxing. What I like is that this kid from the Philippines has worked and trained most of his life to have this moment in the sun.
Nothing deterred him. Not the misstep he made by running for Congress, while still fighting. Not the misstep he made by being a ladies’ man. Nothing deterred him.
He has a huge heart—and that heart had him sweating, and training, and concentrating, and working to attain this one goal.
It was sad though to see the Golden Boy, 35-year-old De La Hoya, suffer indignities at the hand of the superstar from the Philippines. A knockout would have been better than a technical knockout, in my opinion. A little more honorable, a little less sad.
Manny Pacquiao has millions of fans around the world, but especially back home. Rising from the streets to a mansion, he’s fulfilled the dream that others will never attain.
So the blood and guts of boxing don’t appeal to me at all, but the heart and the soul of the individual boxers do. The King is dead. Long live the King.
]
December 14, 4:56 PM
by Jerilyn Dufresne, Chicago Mental Health Examiner
The hard working champion (AP Photo/Mark J. Terrill)One thing I’m not is a boxing fan. But I think I’m a fan of Emmanuel Dapigran Pacquiao, better known as Manny or Pacman. He’ll be 30 years old in a few days and has been fighting for the better part of his life.
What makes me like him? Not that he beat Oscar De La Hoya with a TKO in round eight. Nope. As I said, I don’t like boxing. What I like is that this kid from the Philippines has worked and trained most of his life to have this moment in the sun.
Nothing deterred him. Not the misstep he made by running for Congress, while still fighting. Not the misstep he made by being a ladies’ man. Nothing deterred him.
He has a huge heart—and that heart had him sweating, and training, and concentrating, and working to attain this one goal.
It was sad though to see the Golden Boy, 35-year-old De La Hoya, suffer indignities at the hand of the superstar from the Philippines. A knockout would have been better than a technical knockout, in my opinion. A little more honorable, a little less sad.
Manny Pacquiao has millions of fans around the world, but especially back home. Rising from the streets to a mansion, he’s fulfilled the dream that others will never attain.
So the blood and guts of boxing don’t appeal to me at all, but the heart and the soul of the individual boxers do. The King is dead. Long live the King.
]
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