MayPac: The Aftermath

So... people waited five years for that?

"Fight of the Century" or the cure for insomnia? People were disappointed to say the least. Manny didn't knock Floyd out as they had wanted. Instead, Floyd evaded Manny's fists and landed accurate counter-punches to rack up points. That's about it. Save for a small cut on Floyd's face, both fighters probably had a comfy sleep later that night and woke up to the aroma of bacon, eggs and freshly printed money.

You know, this whole affair reminds me of DOTA 2. If you're not familiar with DOTA then I'm sorry. The grand finale last 2013 of The International, DOTA 2's biggest event, featured the team of Na'vi versus Alliance. Na'vi was the crowd favorite. They were likable enough but what impressed people were their propensity to pull off the "big plays". They made the game look fun and that's what people loved about them. They're like Manny Pacquiao in certain ways. They were really fun to watch.

During the finale, Na'vi were wiping the floor with Alliance. However, while the entire team of Na'vi were pushing up the lane to the enemy base, Alliance sneakily split-pushed them while they weren't paying attention. Na'vi may have owned in the fighting but the objective of the game is to destroy the enemy's throne. Aliance relied on this particular hero that was really good at pushing lanes solo. When Na'vi realized this and attempted to teleport back to stop it, Alliance cancelled their teleportation with a well placed Dream Coil and Na'vi lost the match.

For all their skill, they seemed to lose sight of the main objective of the game: destroying the throne. That's the final objective. Killing the enemy team is but a step towards the final goal.

So it was with Manny. You have to beat your opponent, not just try to knock him out. A knockout is great but there's more than one way to win. The ideal scenario for him would have been to catch Floyd and unleash a flurry of powerful punches to knock his ass out. Floyd, to his credit, always remembered that Boxing has rules and you can use these rules to your advantage. As much as Filipinos wanted to see a glorious knockout, it all came down to punches thrown and accuracy.

People want an epic fight; the kind of fight you'd tell your children about. In the end, it just kinda boils down to bullshit stuff like that. Na'vi were great but were beaten by some guy who just went for the win while they weren't looking. Manny is exciting to watch but knockouts aren't the only way to win a Boxing match.

Like Alliance, Floyd was smart. Who cares what the crowd thinks, really? The contestants are there to win not to make people happy. In the end, it's only the sport that suffers anyway so why care? Just laugh all the way to Bern and offload that sweet prize money in a Swiss bank account.

That's life basically. We want life to be like the movies; exciting and thrilling but in the end, it's just about boring rules and technicalities.