Two promotions eye Pacquiao fight
WAS Manny Pacquiao really sick when he fought—and knocked out—Lucas Matthysse?
Just a day after the seventh-round stoppage in Kuala Lumpur that made Pacquiao the new world welterweight champion again (WBA version), the papers reported that the fighting senator was nursing a heart ailment when he fought the Argentinian knockout artist (36 KOs out of 39 wins).
Only a “waiver” by the Cardinal Santos Medical Center in San Juan City saved the Matthysse fight.
When the news broke out, I couldn’t believe it, to be honest.
Had the “ailment” been leaked out before the bout, it would have surely caused an uproar— and the fight might have been canceled outright.
While it is now water under the bridge, so to speak, the “news” still continues to draw clubhouse talk for its sheer weirdness.
The primordial question: How could a man with a heart ailment fight?
And in a world championship at that? Not even a three-round sparring session might merit a green light from a well-meaning doctor handling a patient with a heart condition. But was it because it was Pacquiao fighting? You know, celebrities have a way with things, like manipulating or doing some arm-twisting to influence decisions?
And do consider that he is of the superhuman stuff, having won 11 world crowns across eight unprecedented belts in eight different weight divisions before facing Matthysse?
Immune to dangers, risks, because of his awesome stature, boxing records?
But as sure as the sun rises in the east, it was fake news.
Pacquiao isn’t sick. No “serious” heart disease. When finally confronted about it, Pacquiao joked: “What they found in my heart was the word Jinkee [his wife’s name].”
Veteran sports columnist Recah Trinidad had every reason to be angry. Wasn’t he the first to write about the heart “ailment?”
“Kuryente [I‘ve been had],” he said in his next column.
Recah had relied on the say-so of Aquiles Zonio from the Pacquiao camp.
“Now he (Zonio) had evaporated,” said Recah. “Conveniently.”
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ALL the best to Chair Rachel Arenas and her MTRCB Board and staff being shepherded by Daisy de Guzman and Del Baldo; they are now undergoing their team building at The Manor in Baguio City July 27-29. Cheers!