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Manny Pacquiao: Making History

  • Writer: Bicolmail Web Admin
    Bicolmail Web Admin
  • May 31
  • 3 min read


Manny Pacquiao, named fighter of the decade in 2010 by the Boxing Writers Association of America, officially announced this month his fight against Mario Barrios for the WBC welterweight championship in Las Vegas.


Manny said, “Let’s make history.”


Manny has not had a fight in four years. Meanwhile, Barrios was elevated to a full champion in 2024 after winning the WBC welterweight title in September 2023. His last match was on November 15, 2024, when he knocked out Abel Ramos.


The age difference between the two pugilists has been a topic of discussion, not only among professional fighters, but even among Filipinos and boxing fans who don’t want the retired champ to get hurt in the ring.


I have some concerns about Manny fighting a much younger opponent who is in the prime of his career. Manny is 46 years old, while Barrios is 30. That’s a 16-year age gap which may make sense for two people passionately in love but not in boxing.


Manny is risking not only his pride but his health as well.


More than a decade ago, I wrote an article about Manny revealing his secret. In one of his birthday celebrations, he told a crowd of well-wishers that God appeared to him once, when he was not yet famous, and promised him strength and power.


Explained Manny, “This is true...I was not yet popular and world champion when our God appeared to me and assured me strength and power.”


True or untrue, Manny has become what he is because he is a disciplined fighter. He has accomplished a lot through hard work. He is also not arrogant.


Personally, I find it difficult to believe Manny’s story because he did not elucidate the circumstances surrounding why, where, and how God appeared to him.


Also, why did he wait for so long before he talked about it? My guess is because God would turn out to be a liar if he did not become a champion.


Now after a four-year hiatus, Manny wants to fight again. What’s motivating him to enter the ring at this stage of his life? What else does he want to prove?


Manny once said, “I confronted poverty by trusting God and dreaming big. I was convinced I could succeed in boxing. The boxing ring could be the breeding ground of my dreams.”


If Manny believes that God’s “promise” to him of “strength and power” is what motivates him this time to fight again, I will advise him to be cautious and be more circumspect.


I don’t want him to commit the same mistake made by William McKinley, the American president in the late 1800s, who claimed in a vision that God told him to educate, uplift and civilize the Filipinos, as part of the so-called “Manifest Destiny.”


God’s alleged message to McKinley was BS. He used God to promote a self-righteous ideology to control and miseducate the Filipinos.


As Manny prepares for his fight, I hope he would not completely rely on God’s supposed promise of “strength and power” because it can’t establish objective predictions. Doing so might lead to his own downfall.


I don’t know how Manny will do it, but he needs to find his old form. He needs to bring back that speed, strategic play, power punch, and explosiveness, characteristics that carried him to many of his successes.


I hope this is the history that Manny is talking about.

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