Manny Pacquiao: Boxer turned Politician
The Philippines recently held general elections and guess who won a seat on congress? Yes that’s right, one of the best pound for pound boxers out there, Manny Pacquiao. Now why would a boxer want to become a politician? Most boxers out there really don’t care about politics and only want to beat the life out of someone else while increasing their own financial wealth. It seems that Mr. Pacquiao has higher ideals than that. Here is a boxer who actually wants to see something good happens to his country and he is determined to do just that.
Not content with being one of the best boxers alive today, Manny decided that he would try his hand at policy making. The biggest thing that he has going for him though is public support. He is almost worshiped as a god in the Philippines and that is the reason he won a seat in government. What is hard to understand is why, besides his popularity, did people vote for him? It seems that one of the greatest arsenals a politician can have in his or her corner, if you will excuse the obvious boxing pun, is public support. It is a reason why corrupt, uneducated and power hungry politicians keep winning elections in developing countries. The people of their constituencies keep voting them into power no matter what they do. It seems that the talented boxer is none of these things except for being uneducated. But that didn’t stop him from becoming a mighty force in the daily life of the average Filipino person.
Besides having massive public support and being a phenomenal boxer, can Manny actually make a dent in the politics of the Philippines? It seems most politicians have some sort of political training but in the case of Pacquiao he may not need it. He has the backing of the public and that might see him through some hairy times. What every politician understands and what Manny will one day as well, that it is an art to deal with many different people and how to get your way by negotiating and dealing. That’s what politics is all about in the real world. He may be able to get far by having a simple policy of helping the poor and hopefully he will pick up the in depth political expertise as he moves on in politics but we will have to wait and see. Having come from absolute poverty to become one of the most popular people in the country, he has a level of empathy with those people he is trying to represent, than most politicians out there.
An interesting development in this story is the fact that he plans to get in the ring one more time before hanging up his gloves for good. It will be interesting to see who he fights but all bets are on him taking on another fantastic boxer; the American Floyd Mayweather. According to a news story Manny wanted to fight one more time because that is what his fans wanted him to do and he had to get permission from his mother in order to do it. (The Morning Star Online: http://www.morningstaronline.co.uk/index.php /news/content/view/full/90283). Now that is very sweet in the same way a chick flick is sweet but why does a grown man who is about to become a congressman in the Philippines need to ask his mother if he can fight one last time? Did he ask her if he could fight before every fight he fought?
Finally I wonder what would happen if he lost to Mayweather. It would make things a lot more interesting. He gets into the ring for the last time to take on another great boxer and gets knocked out? It probably won’t happen because of how good he is. In the unpredictable world of boxing you never know because it may be Mayweather’s day and Manny could find him on the mat counting little birds swirling around his head. I think Manny will do fine as a politician though because he is already showing strong political intelligence by first getting elected to a seat on congress and then fighting Mayweather because even if he loses it really doesn’t matter. He is already in congress. Smart man this Pacquiao.
Tags: