Manny Pacquiao is a once-in-a-generation prize fighter — the sort of puncher whose reputation will serve as a point of comparison for young up-comers from now on. He is a true warrior, always up for the challenge, always a good show.
Give Pacquiao even more credit, too, because he's accomplished so much — including world titles in seven different weight classes and general recognition as the best pound-for-pound fighter of his time — with the weight of the Filipino people on his shoulders.
It's arguable that not since Rocky Marciano excited the Italian-American community in the 1950s has an athlete meant so much to an ethnic group. Stories abound about the pressures Marciano felt every time he stepped in the ring as a representative of an oft-overlooked or under-valued ethnic community. Some stories say that's why he left the ring, turning down plenty of big-money fights and retiring as the only undefeated heavyweight champ in history. He just didn't want to keep walking into the ring with the weight of all those expectations on him.
Pacquiao doesn't appear to feel such pressures from his role as a Filipino standard. He doesn't seem to regard the hopes and dreams vested in him by his fellow Filipinos as a burden. Indeed, Pacquiao seems to relish the role, embracing and expanding it himself. He rushes to make efforts to aid typhoon victims and runs for public office. He waves the Filipino flag every chance he gets.
Pacquiao needs a lot of dough to finance such gusto. That can be arranged because he is a cash machine — for now — with a promoter and plenty of others who stand in line to make bunches of money whenever he fights.
And Pacquiao fights like few others. He fights the best, and he fights them at various weights — a trick that is much more difficult than many observers might realize.
He fights them often, too. Pacquiao has been in the ring since he was 16. He recently turned 31 and already has 55 professional fights to his credit. Now there is talk of a fight against Floyd Mayweather, Jr., sometime in May. That will make Pacquiao's sixth championship bout — at six different weights — in a little more than two years.
Pacquiao has made this latest run look relatively easy. He's done more than beat his opponents. He's pounded them, looking nearly invincible. Fast as lighting with power in both hands. Confident yet wise as he moves about the ring. Superb conditioning. Everything comes together when Pacquiao gets in the ring and pounds out another win.
That's about all it looks like to a casual observer, but the professionals who surround Pacquiao should know better. He's taken a lot of blows from many good fighters. Sure, he whipped them. But they got some good licks in — and there's a cumulative effect over time. Pacquiao feels those punches even when he's giving five for every one he takes. He'll feel them later, too. Just ask Muhammad Ali, who took very few crunching blows throughout his career but is obviously dealing with the cumulative effects of many unremarkable jabs, uppercuts, hooks and crosses that were just part of the course of a regular fight.
So here's a message for Pacquiao, his entourage, and the Filipino people: It's time for a break, and even national heroes deserve one from time to time. Pacquiao should finish whatever he's started with Mayweather and then spend a year way from the ring. The fight game will still be there if he decides to return. He'll still be able to sell tickets and pay-per-view buys.
Meanwhile, a break would give Pacquiao a chance to take stock of his health — and his accounting. He might take the time to lay the groundwork for a financial future that will be safe beyond the ring. The only real fear in such a plan would be the chance that he might lose his taste for combat.
So be it.
Manny Pacquiao has earned the right to acquire new tastes — even if he finds them outside of the boxing ring.
Related articles:
• Pacquiao Looks to Roll a 7 in Vegas
• The Other Mannywood
• Pacquiao Puts Typhoon Victims on Shoulders
• Pac-Man's People Say Pride of the Philippines Set for Short Night's Work in Las Vegas
Jerry Sullivan is editor of the L.A. Garment & Citizen.
Photo by Joseph Pimentel, Asian Journal.
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