Boxing developments must be kept in perspective
Welcome to Manny Pacquiao land.
A place of wide-sweeping optimism, determination, courage, and quality reportage. Here, nothing is outside of range of going viral. Manny skipping training for basketball? Viral. Manny grabbing a cola with his 5.30 evening meal? Viral. Manny sitting at
the window seat on his way to Los Angeles? Definitely viral.
As the seven-division titleist enters the second and most significant phase of training for his upcoming mega-fight with Antonio Margarito, one thing’s become increasingly clear: reporters are willing to report on just about anything when it comes to “Pacman.”
Indeed, to say this time around there’s been a fetish in regards to Pacquiao reporting would be putting it mildly. Just watch Elie Seckbach’s recent video at Pacquiao’s Los Angeles home (how did he get there?), where he receives the fighter for a painful
interview immediately after arriving in L.A. from the Philippines. In the interview, Pacquiao seems obviously distracted and not at ease. But more than that, he just looks tired and fed up with public relations, slumping down on a couch surrounded by entourage
and family members like an exhausted six year old.
It’s hard to say where Pacquiao’s at right now, but in some ways, it’s easier to judge him than it is to judge reports about him. The problem is that fans never get to him without the reports, which impede access to the truth and nevertheless in the same
gesture claim to supply it.
Certainly, there’s no denying boxing fans want up-to-the-minute breaking developments on Pacquiao. But what stands as accurate and what doesn’t?
Probably more importantly, what stands as meaningful and what doesn't?
A peculiarity with Pacquiao's training camp coverage this time around is that developments have shifted from being about things themselves, to being about the things that are about the things themselves. A good example of this can be seen in the way Pacquiao’s
performance has been reported so far. Many close to Pacquiao, including trainer Freddie Roach, have stated that he's yet to come into himself, and that congress duties and a lack of focus have made camp the worst yet.
Just the other day, in an interview with Steve Kim of Max Boxing, Roach diagnosed the training camp (in Baguio City) as follows: “The thing is, it was just too many distractions [...] The Philippines, the typhoons, distractions, it’s just too much bulls**t.”
But no later did Roach and company spark thoughts about Manny’s inadequacies, than they were distorted into another sweeping plot development.
Lightweight prospect Brandon Rios, who trains at the same gym as Margarito, put it this way: “I would not be surprised if they [Pacquiao and Roach] cancel the fight. They want us to think Pacquiao isn't working hard so that Margarito will train lightly.”
And so it was written.
A story about Pacquiao looking sluggish in training camp, confirmed by his trainer, was converted into a conspiracy theory charging team Pacquiao with wanting to make team Margarito believe certain things in order to persuade them to put their feet up and
take it easy.
The Roach Rumours don’t stop there.
More and more boxing insiders have commented on Roach's 'Pacquiao retirement prophecies' as a remarkable ploy for the Margarito camp. But it also works internally. Couldn’t Roach be getting into his own fighter’s head, with depressing comments about his
lacklustre performance, in order to whip him up for the bout?
Of course he could.
Though with the media barrier and the sworn-in truthfulness of reporters, we’ll never know.
In an interesting way, boxing reporting is often about the trimmings and never the real thing. We get development after development of fight-negotiations ‘closing in,’ ‘financial terms being reached,’ and fighters voicing directing challenges against each
other. But we never get , objective reports of financial terms themselves. We never get details of who earns what for a fight without slipping into the dark and depressing recesses of ludicrous research.
While David Haye isn’t always a supportable figure, he gets at it when he recently allowed himself the statement: “There's a lot more behind the scenes the fans aren't aware of. Boxers call each other out but when it comes to signing the contract and the
money situation, the television rights, the venues, no one hears about that [...] They just hear one fighter say they want to fight another fighter and assume that means the other person's going to turn up on the day. There's so much more to it than meets
the eye.”
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