In the United States, Boxing has always been a poor man's sport. For people around the world, it was an outlet to release stress and to keep one's sanity. However, when the sport becomes professional, boxers take it to another level and have a little bit more riding on it than just the love of the game. There's the political aspect, the financial controversy, the media that's involved, the social status; their reputation. In tonight's fight between Manny Pacquiao vs. Juan Manuel Marquez, Pacquiao lost for the first time in their four fightsin the worst way possible by having a total knock out during the sixth round.
In the United States, sports have been such a great phenomenon that American's throw down large sums of money to be part of that gambling economy. Competition is also in the American's nature and have the mentality to win. So, for a boxing match this huge, the stakes are massively unimaginable. Pacquiao needed to lose properly, instead of fighting for twelve rounds and having the judges decide who wins. I'm glad Marquez won because it took courage for him to want to fight four times to finally have a decent win. In addition to the "American Dream," Marquez wanted to win it bad enough that he was willing to do whatever it took. When the fight was over, he didn't even acknowledge the losing opponent, and just wandered off to the corner of the rim and celebrated his victory.
In a way, it's just probably how the mind works. One may forget to be mindful when they finally win what they have been wanting for so long. For Pacquiao, I hope that with this humility, he becomes a little bit more humble in a sense where his head isn't too large for his body. Sports and the U.S. Culture will always have its bias however, if one remembers the "love of the game" for how its represented, then a game is just a game.
Genisanne De Ocampo ( TTH 2:00-3:15)
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