Saraah!

I don’t care if Marquez outscored Manny in punching points, all that a skeptic needs to see is the full knockdown in the third round. Boxing rules intact but without a referee, Pacquiao, in a real boxing match, will have killed the mexican. Undoubtedly.

In popular Western lore and literature, we read exaggerated accounts of national heroes–mythological or real. There’s Beowulf of the scandinavian tribes; Hercules in both Hellen and Hellenistic civs; Rama of Hindu Ramayana ad infinitum. Save the criticisms until the next millennia but Pacquiao is and will be among the great heroic figures of the world.

It’s not about boxing per se. It’s about the brute physical strength and skills necessary to win a match. There is no trial of intellect neither a test of integrity. Thor, for all his bombast and conceit, did more to defend the Aesirs from their enemies than his greatest dissenters. Achilles, a tragic hero, counted for a hundred men in the battlefield for the Hellas, more than the effusive number of hate-talk against him .

Give Pacquiao the same freedom to boast and talk funk. He deserves it. How many politicians ply the news with self-praise but without the credentials to match the talk? Plenty of course. if I were Manny, I would be more conceited like hell–after all, I’ve been there and back.

And, don’t mind the politics because that is part and parcel of being famous for strength. We can learn a lot from Agamemnon if we decide to bash the President for being extra accommodating to Pacquiao. History does not repeat but goes unchange from across different contexts and cultures. Only the names are different.

Okay.

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