By Lou “Cinder” Block
Boxing doesn’t get the type of mainstream exposure that other sports get in America. Golf gets more exposure than boxing, so does tennis and Nascar.
When people are unfamiliar with something they will cling to what they know, and the only names the American public know are Manny ‘Pacman’ Pacquiao and Floyd ‘Money’ Mayweather Jr., the only two boxers keeping the sport alive in American mainstream today.
The problem with being the only big names known to the mainstream is the real talented boxers fly under the radar and don’t get the praise the big names do. I can honestly say that Manny Pacquiao is not the greatest of the decade or best fighter in the game today. I know a lot of the PacNerds or PacTards will claim otherwise, but if you follow the sport deeply and not a fly-by-night boxing fan, you will agree with me.
I can name fighters the mainstream doesn’t know about who have more charisma, more personality, more style, more boxing ability and more talent than Manny Pacquiao does. Boxers like Paul Williams, Lucian Bute, Vitali and Wladimir Klitschko who are even bigger stars worldwide than Pacquiao, Sergio Martinez, Timothy Bradley, Devon Alexander, Celestino Caballero, Juan Manuel Lopez, Andre Berto, and the list goes on.
Boxing isn’t dead! All of those fighters I named could be stars if the media covered boxing more, and people wouldn’t be riding the Manny Pacquiao wagon out of familiarity.
Floyd Mayweather Jr. deserves the praise and fame because he truly has talent and skills that epitomize the sport of boxing, Floyd is the sweet science. Floyd is a positive image for boxing because he can speak English well, he has swagger, he talks a lot of mess, but he has the skills to back it up.
The mainstream buys into Rocky movies, they are turned on by the blood and guts warrior spirit of Manny Pacquiao, but Pacquiao was given the easiest path in boxing. He was hand fed opponents by his trainer Freddie Roach and caught them at the right time, disposing of them in impressive fashion to make him look more beastly than he really is. If I my grandma fought the dehydrated, lifeless Oscar De La Hoya that Manny Pacquiao fought she would’ve beat his butt too!
They have a word for this and it’s called “Media Hype”, Pacman is a media hype job plain and simple. I am disappointed with the BWAA’s choice of Manny Pacquiao as the “Fighter of the Decade” and not voting for more deserving guys like Roy Jones Jr., Floyd Mayweather Jr., Bernard Hopkins, Joe Calzaghe. But you have to understand why they picked Manny Pacquiao, they did it for the publicity and exposure their event will get.
For the casual boxing fans who happen to read this article because they were looking for Mayweather or Pacquiao; start doing your own research on boxing, learn more about the history, watch more boxing matches, DON’T LET THE MEDIA FOOL YOU! Don’t buy into the Manny Pacquiao media hype train.
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