i know this is a little out of date but i just wanted to share my thoughts on the recent fight of pacquiao. i wrote this monday night after that horrifying sunday but before publishing it in my blog, i have to deliver this first in one of our toastmaster's sesh.
The Art of Choosing Our Battles
Jon Saraceno in his headline for
the USA Today wrote: “Covered in a mask of blood, the 39 year old fighter
blasted Pacquiao with a huge right hand with one second remaining in the sixth
round to score a decisive knockout, the first time he defeated his Filipino
adversary in four attempts.” Last
Sunday, Dec 9, Marquez put a definitive conclusion to a rivalry that spanned
for a total of 42 rounds in over 7 years. A jaw-dropping, unbelievable and
surprisingly entertaining match for boxing and non-boxing fans alike.
Good evening toastmasters and
guests.
I was not a huge boxing fan. I
prefer basketball and football because these are the 2 sports I can play. But
when Manny Pacquiao became a national icon, I started to consider watching his
fight and eventually got interested in other boxers and the sport itself. But
let’s face it, here in the Philippines majority of the people don’t really care
about other boxers or other boxing fights for that matter. The only fight that
we care about so much so as posting it in our facebook status or hashtagging it
in our twitter timeline is that of the “Pambansang Kamao” or Pacquiao’s. After all, he was and
he is phenomenal.
To those of you who are very much
into social networking, you may have read, commented and even liked statuses
that talked about Pacquiao’s fall over Marquez. There was the issue of him
losing because he changed religion and did not make the sign of the cross.
There was that status about the RH bill connected of his defeat, which I found
very funny by the way. There were also true blue fans of Pacman who voiced
their admiration and approval of him as one of the famers for boxing even after
the fall. Interestingly, in my own facebook timeline and twitter majority of
the posts were expressing their desire for Pacman to retire and just give up
those boxing gloves. They question why did he even bother fighting against
Marquez when he already got him 2 times with the previous fights? Fair notion,
isn’t it?. But the real question is, can he really just retire immediately as
much as he wants to? As much as his family wants to? Or as much as his fans
want to? And can he really choose his fights or who to fight?
We need to make one thing clear.
First, we have to know that 95% of the time, boxers cannot choose who they want
to contend. Before they match up with the famous, they got to be famous
themselves and how do they do that? Their promoter will do everything in their
power to tie up with media, get them famous by spending thousands of pesos or
dollars for that matter and spend a lot of time and effort to get the boxer in
the A-list.
So, case and point #1: Before
Pacquiao became the icon that he is, thousands of money was spent to build him.
Case and point #2: He may have already doubled or tripled the money that was
spent to build him but he can only stop when his promoting company sees it as
appropriate for him and his career and for their pockets too. To simply put it,
Pacquiao no matter how beat-up and humiliated he already is cannot choose to
end all this boxing frenzy as easy as saying, “I quit”.
But you know what battle or what
fight he can choose? The battle of humility, the fight to maintain
sportsmanship by honestly declaring his mistake: “I got careless, I got hit by
a punch I didn’t see”
Unlike Pacquiao, we as human
beings in our struggle to survive have the option to choose which battles to
fight. It may be choosing to do right in a workplace, which consents to an
immoral act. It may be simply keeping silent at a pissed off partner and
waiting for the anger to cool down. The moment we keep our rationales above our
emotions, our opponent may think that they are dominant and we lay inferior
over their strong outbursts. But truth of the matter is, choosing wisely which
battles to win and fight is already winning in itself. So fellow toastmasters, choose your battles wisely today.
Good evening!
and to top that, i will share some of the photos i took at the waterfront hotel and casino where we watched the fight (:
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| the not-so-newly renovated lobby |
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| no one cannot have too much christmas tree photos :p |
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| the bar at the lobby |
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| grand staircase going to the function rooms |
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| another picture of the bar |
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| the girl in the mirror :p |
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| hello fat me! |
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| too bad we are not allowed to take photos inside but that's where the fight was shown in several huge screens |
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| boxing fan, jon (the guy in violet)! |
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boxing fan, jp (the guy in black) funny how i took photos of my boxing buddies showing their
backs only! lol |
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| happy holidays says the snowman! |
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i just have to take a photo of myself in that grand
staircase :p |
✘O✘O,
