Predicting Manny’s KO

I had anticipated yesterday that Manny Pacquiao was going to lose his fight with Juan Manuel Marquez. Thus, I was not caught by surprise with the TV shot at about 2:30 p.m. which showed Manny sprawled after Marquez had knocked him out in the closing minutes of their sixth round.

Actually, both my grandson, Giancarlo Pasolini and I had predicted a Pacquiao loss. All had expected Marquez to fall again beneath the Pacquiao gloves.

But long before that bout, I had already been convinced that Manny was going to lose the fight.

For a lot of the reasons. One is his age. He may not have not reached the peak of his fighting career, but one must acknowledge that after the prolonged punishment all these years, Pacman’s body has received quite a lot of blows from his opponents.

Second, one who has seen video shots of Pacman during his workouts before his bouts, may have noticed a gradual diminution of his stamina and his physical getup.

And, of course, there as the gaping difference in the betting for and against Pacman. When the difference reached already something like 4 to 1 in favor of Pacman, I knew that something had to give.

Then, one has to watch Pacquiao’s lifestyle. He is now usually crowded by hangers-on. People who just want to have their names mentioned as close to him.

And, as pointed out by his mother, Dionisia, they invade his room crowding out other visitors. In short, everyone wants to be known as Pacman’s “friend”.

Wherever he went, Pacquaio had a horde of supporters tagging along with him. He eats his meals with a crowd around him. That’s a problem that usually bothers big names in the Philippines. They laugh when he laughs. They denounce when he denounces. All his supporters simply want to humor him. So that Pacman no longer had his own feel about what the ordinary man feels.

The change in his lifestyle should have alerted him to the possibility that it could gradually bring him down. He must have lost his muscles. After all, while he kept reportedly on his toes maintaining his muscles, we must admit that lately, Pacman had grown a bit fat. That may not have hit him, but it was a fact that could not have failed to exert their impact on his last fight.

In short, I guess it is time for Manny to quit the ring. He should have done that a year ago when he was still undefeated. That was the best time to call it quits. But it is difficult for the one on top to give up his crown. So, the fall must first happen. I hope that he does not seek a second round to it.

***

Well, there was no warning to cut trees. If you must have noticed, them are no more trees to cut.

That was the comment by a local New Bataan town official to a TV interviewer.

But it seems that he had never asked himself – who was responsible for the loss of thousand of trees, and what he had done to make sure that those responsible for the deforestation answered for what they had done to the area of New Bataan.

New Bataan is located in a zone that should not have been picked as a site of a poblacion.

It was the lower portion of a valley that also empties into a river. Thus, the mud slipped down the mountain and swamped the town under graying mass which virtually covered the town.

Hundreds of houses were also felled by the crushing winds of super typhoon Pablo and rendered some parts of the town virtually isolated from the rest.

Even heavy equipment could not negotiate the muddy ground, which included the main town road. Just around New Bataan were acres of Cavendish bananas that were the main exports on the town to China, Taiwan and Japan.

Government planners should now take up the task of mapping out how New Bataan and neighboring towns could be rehabilitated so residents would not be exposed again to the destructive might of floods and typhoons. And make sure that the drainage systems are okay and the roads passable despite the floods.

Surely, the geo hazards maps will give the drafters of the plan something to learn. In short, that will mean that geo hazard maps are not drawn up by the government to be tossed into a pile and forgotten until the big one comes around.*

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