The Stunning Pacquiao Lost?

For the Filipinos, everything stops whenever there's a Pacquiao fight. But on June 10, nothing less than the heartbeats of those watching the Pacquiao-Bradley bout halted, when the winner of the split decision was announced. It's not Pacquiao. It was Bradley. A result most people were not used to. Manny Pacquiao was stripped of the WBO Welterweight crown. Filipinos were stunned with disbelief.

Then followed the reactions in Twitter, Facebook and other social networking sites, which is not surprising. The negative comments that ensued are not unique to the crowd reaction in Las Vegas. The Bradley win is not convincing. Manny should've won. The fight was rigged.

Most Pacquiao fans missed those times when Manny would bring down his opponents kissing the floor with his power punches, and then it's game over. It has been quite a while that that has happened, the last one being with Hatton. There would be, obviously, no controversy, no doubt, in wins such as that one. In those kinds of matches, the judges were irrelevant. The winner is as clear as day.

That was the last time I saw Pacquiao as a real fighter. After that, his wins came by way of points. Of course he still won. But not wins worth of remembrance in my book. Sports analyst said Manny has matured into a technical fighter. And winning by points is really what boxing is about, not destroying your opponent. A super philosophy, that has apparently bit Pacquiao in the end.

Today, the world saw a Pacquiao lost. But did he really? I have a feeling that the Pacquiao lost is not a lost in boxing. And if Pacquiao is synonymous with boxing, then it's really not a lost.
Because of his unprecedented success, Manny's opponents had become less and less. Everyone wants to challenge him on paper. But no one would really dare to be in that ring when Pacquiao is in his best. And because of this trend, boxing has started to become boring. Fans started to fall and switched to UFC, with Manny having no worthy opponent to fight. The one that the fans would wish, chose instead to be placed behind bars.

Thus, logic dictates that to save the boxing industry, Manny has to lose. Manny has to become human. A "re-match" has to be set in November, to keep the fans in tune to what will happen. If Manny conquers Bradley like the rest of them, he would've won, but boxing would've lost, due to predictability and to fan boredom.
It's not a surprise that a re-match clause was included in Bradley's contract. It's not surprising that even with a lost, Manny is still skipping happily to the bank with an assured 26 million dollar purse, not counting pay per view earnings. It's not surprising that a "mistaken" poster from the Bradley camp came out weeks before fight date announcing a re-match in November. It's not surprising that in the actual fight, Manny "slowed down" after convincingly winning the first 6 rounds. Boxing is not just about sports. It's about business.

The masses may mourn a Pacquiao lost today. But that is part of the drama so we can keep watching, cheering, and keep on paying for watching matches in the boxing ring.

I guess Manny Pacquiao took one for the industry. Besides, the crown is just metal. What is more important is the purse.