Someone once said that boxing is dead, but look at it now. All the articles that have been written and all the stories that have been told, boxing is selling like hot pancakes all because of one man who has already achieved his place in line with the boxing legends and the all-time greats. Of course, I'm talking about Manny Pacquiao, who many once never cared about or been interested in back in the days when he was first building his name in the United States of America.
Back then, who would have known that this Filipino Tasmanian Devil would save boxing after Oscar De La Hoya, the greatest pay-per view king in the history of the sport, retired? Many thought that boxing would sink into quicksand and be overshadowed by the emerging success of the UFC, but that has turned out to be utterly wrong. Once again, boxing proved why the sport is here to stay for a very long time.
Thanks to Manny Pacquiao, upcoming journalists like me have been inspired to write about boxing and boxing alone. Thanks to Manny Pacquiao, we still cherish that finishing left hook punch heard around the world that brought Hatton down to the canvass and kept him there for nearly five minutes. That will go down as one of the most vicious knockouts that any combat sport has ever seen.
Often, people always say that boxing has lost its glory since the old days due to bad officiating and the number of governing bodies that milk money from boxers every time they put their lives on the line. Unfortunately, those same people never learn and fail to realize that boxing has been there and done that. No one can ever make boxing go away in this world. It's because of the excitement, the drama, the behind-the-fight scenes and the highlight reel knockouts that boxing will always be here to stay.
Manny Pacquiao is planning to run for a congressional seat next year and the sad thought about it is that he is also talking about his retirement before the elections. For the sake of the fans, I hope that he would reconsider and delay his plans to do that. The boxing world is still not ready for his early departure at the moment when he is making it big in the United States. Boxing fans and writers will surely miss the excitement and knockouts that he always brings to the ring. He should not leave the sport just yet as he can still do many things and achieve greater glory for himself and the sweet science.
As he previously said, "It's nothing personal, I'm just doing my job." Manny, I hope you can do your job just a little bit more; for the fans, just do it a little bit more.