This article is in response to Lester Salvador’s Pacquiao and Mayweather – One Fan’s Opinion
By Sifufor
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I find your article (Lester Salvador’s Pacquiao and Mayweather – One Fan’s Opinion) perturbing and disappointing. While it gives honor to Mayweather, it slam bangs Pacquiao. There is no substantiation, only biased points of views. The following two statements you make aptly summarize your bias.
“It is no secret and obvious that the hate Floyd Mayweather Jr. receives is from people who are bitter and jealous of his wealth and success. People hate seeing a man brag about his cash and cars and mansion. People should stop being sour and work hard and be the best at what they do, instead of getting mad at guys like Mayweather who are confident and wealthy.”
There is nothing controversial about this statement. It’s your opinion, and I respect it. However, I can’t say the same for the next statement. You imply that Pacquiao is shady:
“Floyd earned his money the honest way and put his blood, sweat and tears into his career. Mayweather never stole cigarettes or donuts and resold them on the street, he also never took drugs and doesn’t smoke or drink he is a positive role model and lives a healthy lifestyle.”
In this statement you take out of context the well publicized story about Pacquiao stealing cigarettes and doughnuts and selling them. You portrayed him as a shady character for doing this. Didn’t you read that he did this when he was a very young child to support his family? The story was told in the context of his hard life and what he is today as an adult- a caring person. You took what was highly commendable of Pacquiao’s childhood and twisted it to portray Pacquiao as a crook. Second, to reinforce your shady portrayal of Pacquiao, you imply that he takes drugs. This is mere echoing of Floyd Mayweather, Sr., your idol’s father, whom Pacquiao is suing for character defamation.
Both Mayweather and Pacquiao have accomplished a lot through hard work and have made huge amounts of money. Yet, where you defend Mayweather with “Floyd earned his money the honest way and put his blood, sweat and tears into his career”, without hesitance you cut Pacquiao down. Is it because of what he did to Miguel Cotto, a fellow Puerto Rican? Cotto is my second favorite fighter next to Pacquiao. Who can’t help but like him? He is very humble and gives credit where credit is due. I too am hoping that he move up to middle weight and become champion there so that he could retire on a positive note and be contented for the rest of his life. Unlike Juan Manuel Marquez, Oscar De la Hoya, and Ricky Hatton, all of whom appear to be sour puss about Pacquiao for what he did to them, Cotto indeed is a class act. Did you read where he said that, despite being badly beaten by Pacquiao, Pacquiao is the best fighter he has ever faced? Or did you trash it because it worked against your grain?
Yes, you are entitled to your opinion. However, no one has license to use opinion as a vehicle for defaming another person’s character. Floyd Mayweather, Sr. did this to Pacquiao, and Pacquiao is now suing him for slander and character defamation. I doubt very much Pacquiao will sue you. He probably won’t read your article.
While we enjoy freedom of speech, we must be sure that what we say is true or can be supported by evidence. I will now point out where I think you are walking on thin ice because you present no supporting evidence.
- “I am still pained to see my Puerto Rican countrymen Miguel Cotto suffer unfair losses to the hands of two questionable boxers, Antonio Margarito and Manny “Pacman” Pacquiao.”
This is an innuendo that Pacquiao was on drugs when he fought Cotto. This may be considered slander as you provide no evidence that he was on drugs but wrote on hearsay.
- “Antonio Margarito cheated by loading his gloves against Shane Mosley and got banned for it, and now Manny Pacquiao has been accused of steroids by several boxers including Floyd Mayweather, Kermit Cintron and Paulie Malignaggi.”
While it is correct that Pacquiao has been speculated to be using steroids, no one accused him of using steroids. You are slanting things here. The drug test imposed by Mayweather was not an accusation, but a safeguard.
- “If Floyd fought Oscar De La Hoya at 154 lbs then Pacquiao should man up, but he already admitted he was scared to fight Yuri Foreman because he was too big for him so he chose Joshua Clottey instead.”
Pacquiao fought and beat badly De la Hoya and Hatton, both of whom Mayweather had a hard time with. Also Pacquiao TKO’d Cotto, whom Mayweather avoided. All were bigger than he. But Yuri is 6’ tall, Pacquiao is only 5’61/2”. Pacquiao did say Yuri is too big for him. He did not admit that he was scared of him. Again, you slant things.
- “Floyd earned his money the honest way and put his blood, sweat and tears into his career. Mayweather never stole cigarettes or donuts and resold them on the street, he also never took drugs and doesn’t smoke or drink he is a positive role model and lives a healthy lifestyle.”
As was previously noted, this was taken out of context and wrongly implied that Pacquiao is shady and is on drugs.
- “The man(Mayweather) has fought the best and cleaned out the 130 and 135 lbs weight classes. Pacquiao has never done such a thing, all Pacquiao did was fight washed up guys and hand picked champions on his way up while avoiding guys like Nate Campbell, Juan Diaz, Juan Manuel Marquez in a third fight and Timothy Bradley to just name a few. “
What’s so funny is that this accusation of handpicked opponents is usually leveled on Mayweather, never on Pacquiao. You’ve got balls for twisting things around. Those fighters you mention were not at the time and are not now considered the top prospects for Pacquiao. What makes you think Pacquiao was avoiding them? Are you kidding? Remember, Pacquiao fought Marquez twice and knocked him down 5 times and would have won both fights had one of the judges scored the three knock down 1st round correctly, 10-6 instead of 10-7. As for Juan Diaz, Marquez\KO’d him and light-hitting Malignaggi beat him soundly in a rematch. As for Tim Bradley, he is being considered for EdwinValero’s first match as a Jr welter. Bob Arum will not let Valero fight Pacquiao without more experience at the heavier weight. What does this tell you? It tells you that Bradley is not as good as Pacquiao. Nate Campbell? Suffice to say that Bradley KO’d him
On the other hand, your so-called “washed up guys” De la Hoya, Hatton and Cotto were not considered washed up before the fights. In fact, two were the defending champions, on top of the heap. So was David Diaz, Pacquiao’s victim before them. Why do you call them”washed ups?” Just because Pacquiao destroyed them? .
- “Pacquiao is overrated. He has never cleaned out a division and he has been spoiled with his opposition and catch weight terms.”
Why “clean out” a division when there is opportunity to do even better? Don’t you think that after winning the WBC lightweight title from David Diaz, Pacquiao’s going up to KO Hatton in the Jr welter weight division is even a more remarkable achievement than “cleaning up” the lightweight division? Why hang around with smaller guys? Why not go head hunting with bigger guys? Pacquiao repeated this remarkable fete in the welter weight division. Don’t forget that he had already done this several times before wresting the lightweight title from David Diaz, 7 times altogether. “Cleaning up a division” is minor league compare to winning titles in seven weight divisions, each time going upwards in weight.
You say Pacquiao is overrated. You are actually talking bad not only of Pacquiao, but of all boxing authorities who do the ratings. We saw how you disregarded Cotto’s statement of how good Pacquiao is. Now we see how you disregard the astuteness of organizations such as the WBO and Ring Magazine. If Pacquiao were not good, these organizations would not have named him the fighter of the decade and the fighter of the year three times straight. I am sure Ring Magazine would not have named him the #1 P4P by a long shot. If Pacquiao were overrated, I am sure the world not be drawn to his fights. Why would his fight with Clotty in Dallas be nearing a sellout of 40,000 with more than a month to go? Why? Because Pacquiao is the most exciting fighter since Ali or Tyson. They may have to make more room in the Dallas Cowboys Stadium. Are you blind to these actualities? I don’t think so. You just don’t like Pacquiao.
- “Now he is taking on Joshua Clottey while Floyd Mayweather Jr. is fighting a real fight against Sugar Shane Mosley. Tell me who is taking the more meaningful fight?”
Again this a twisting of facts. The truth is, Mosley was not available for Pacquiao, as he was scheduled to meet Andre Berto in a title unification bout at Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas on January 30, 2010. However, Berto withdrew from the bout after eight members of his family were killed in the earthquake in Haiti. This happened after Pacquiao had already committed himself to fight Joshua Clottey, leaving Mayweather hanging. It was serendipity for Mosley who then was free to challenge Mayweather. It was not the other way around. Again, I repeat, it was Mosley who chose Mayweather; it was not Mayweather who did the choosing. In fact, after Mosley signed the contract, it took a while for Mayweather to finally sign. If he hadn’t signed, it would have been the second one in a row. He would have sealed his fate as a coward. He had no choice but to sign, as he was now under close scrutiny of every.
In conclusion, your article is full of slating and twisting of facts. It’s bound to be picked apart by others as well. I wish you luck, my friend.
Read Lester Salvador’s Pacquiao and Mayweather – One Fan’s Opinion
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