By: Sean Crose
The man’s patience is extraordinary. There he was recently, trying to catch a flight but one person after another was asking the man for a picture. He never declined. He never stopped smiling. He was always polite. After all these years, Manny Pacquiao remains Manny Pacquiao. It’s a nice thing to see. One would think decades of being swarmed by fans would have at least made him irritable at this point. If that’s so, it seems Pacquiao keeps it to himself and his inner circle. In every sense of the word the man remains disciplined, disciplined enough to believe a high profile rematch against Floyd Mayweather is still going to happen.
“Were just finalizing the final date,” he told FightHype in the airport video. And the Mayweather money issues that have pushed the fight back? “I hope he fixes his problem,” Pacquiao responds. One could see most fighters being exasperated now that the Mayweather bout has been postponed (perhaps at the very least). Mayweather, after all, has earned Fort Knox levels of money over the years. Bitterness isn’t something Pacquiao is comfortable with, has however. For a guy who ran over opponents like a runaway lawnmower for years, the Filipino legend is remarkably self controlled.
That’s been of the great irony of Pacquiao. He’s an absolute force of destruction once the bell rings. After the final bell rings, however, he’s as chill as can be. You never under any circumstances see Manny Pacquiao shooting off his mouth. It’s just not in his nature. For a contemporary boxer, that’s very refreshing. Yet while he may be unlike other boxers in that regard, in other ways Pacquiao is very much like so many of his peers, namely in the sense that he can’t give up professional fighting. Boxing’s list of such men is seemingly endless.
Pacquiao is undoubtedly aware of this but as with so many things, he keeps it chill. He feels he has what it takes to beat Mayweather and perhaps any number of opponents and that’s all there is to it. If he loses, he loses. Pacquiao has never been a man obsessed with the minutia of his resume. He’s lost numerous times, and it hasn’t hurt his reputation. Why? Because he’s never lost against somebody who was beneath his skill level, at least he hasn’t lost fairly against someone who’s beneath his skill level. Judges make mistakes after all.
The fact of the matter is Pacquiao has been so good for the sport of boxing that even people who know he should likely pack it in still want to see him fight. The guy’s that popular. Guts, movement, speed, power… the man has or at least had an endless well of talent and determination. At some point, however, he’s going to have to stop fighting. That will be tough for him to accept as it has been for so many fighters but it’s true. Hopefully he won’t come to the point where he he truly believes he can simply go beyond the sell by date of his ability.
Again, this sort of thing is no doubt on Pacquiao’s mind, but if it affects him deeply he doesn’t let it show. He simply too chill a customer to let his worries or frustrations out in public. Pacquiao not only fights at a professional level, he carries himself like a professional. That’s something the fight world sees far too little of. They’re out there of course, guys like Pacquiao who prefer to keep it more business than show, but boxing could use more of these individuals. Not that a lack of class likely bothers Pac-Man too much. He’s just too easy going to be truly troubled by it.
