It's so easy to be a Manny Pacquiao fan. Yeah, he wins, but so do guys like Kobe, Sid Crosby, and even Floyd Mayweather. But what sets this guy apart is his genuineness and his joy; his genuine joy regarding both his global celebrity (the duet with Will Ferrell, how eager he is to shake every hand that reaches from a mob, etc.) and his sport. He's no less a killer than those other guys, but instead of scowling and trash-talking, he smiles before and while he breaks faces.
Manny has the best spinster in boxing in Bob Arum, but even Bob couldn't create the aura that Manny has. It's just too big and too original. A congressman and karaoke fanatic? I'm going to theorize that all this happy-go-lucky-ness is a function of Filipino-ness. It's a goofy, uncle-ish energy with equal dashes of self-deprecation and gravitas that I'm used to. Heck, it's my energy. Ali is generally credited with mainstreaming the black athlete aura (swaggerly and hip-hop flavored), Manny is mainstreaming this new archetype.
From the WSJ:
"As a sports personality, Mr. Pacquiao is hardly solemn. He can be a childish prankster, quick to tweak his handlers or duet alongside Will Ferrell on "Jimmy Kimmel Live." He is most comfortable in a crowd, whether he's being mobbed in his poor hometown, at the mike of a karaoke bash or shepherding dozens of extended family and friends on a chartered 757 for a fight. While Mr. Woods inhabits a strictly-controlled bubble, Mr. Pacquiao seems happiest when his overcrowded life teeters on chaos.
This unflappability has served him well in boxing, where cheap shots are a ritual. Mr. Margarito mocks Mr. Roach's struggle with Parkinson's Disease? Mr. Pacquiao lets it roll right off. Floyd Mayweather attacks Mr. Pacquiao as a "yellow chump"? Rolls off. Boxer Bernard Hopkins ludicrously suggests Pac-Man is avoiding African-American fighters? Rolls off. Mr. Pacquiao—at 147 pounds —is always the bigger man."
I'm also skeptical about Pac's image of being gracious to his opponents. It's easy to be gracious when you win. Even Mayweather manages a pinch of humility in his post-fight interviews. But when Pac got destroyed by Morales, it was one excuse after the other. He couldn't bring himself to admit that he lost to a better man. I expect to see that same version of Pac when Mayweather waxes him in 2011.
I love this debate!
Also what was up with Jim Lampley saying Pac has the fastest punch in boxing? That's ridiculous, I think we all know who really has that...
Max, you should check the scouting report on the Wall Street Journal. The editorial page is a well known forum for right wing polemics. Pac better than Woods. Maybe in personality, but in terms of sports legacy, Woods blows Pac out of the water. Woods is hands down the best golfer ever. No one of note disputes that. Pac isn't even the consensus best boxer of his own time. And apart from a few Pac-worshippers, I've never heard anybody say Pac is the best ever. At maxboxing they're still on the fence as to whether he's an all-time great.