By Erwin Lastimosa
I love boxing. I’ve watched it as a young kid with my father and uncles and enjoy it even more so in my adulthood. But the racism going on between Manny Pacquiao fans and Floyd Mayweather Jr. fans needs to stop, it’s giving our sport a black eye.
The back and forth bickering is getting to the point of immaturity and shameful insults attacking ones race, family, and other things that have nothing to do with the sport of boxing.
As a Manny Pacquiao fan, I have to ask my fellow Pacquiao fans to please not attack back with vulgar insults when someone says Manny Pacquiao is not skilled or will lose a fight. That is their opinion and it doesn’t warrant you to attack them with racial insults and wishing death on them or their family, it will make people think you are sick in the head and reflect badly on Pacquiao because of it. Don’t justify your racist comments with “they started it,” that doesn’t make it okay, it just makes you as low as them. It is best to turn the other cheek and to not comment at all if you are just going to throw insults in return.
For the Floyd Mayweather fans, I hope you realize that defending Floyd as this wronged and unfairly treated person who is unjustly being attacked by the media, makes you also look extremely biased. He brought the negative attention upon himself by his questionable actions and the way he carries himself. Floyd isn’t an evil person, but people are just frustrated with his childish antics outside of the ring and his inactivity in the sport of boxing. It would be nice for once to see the Mayweather fans give Manny Pacquiao some positive comments and credit for his skill and accomplishments, instead of calling him a bum who fights washed up fighters and accusing him of taking steroids.
Something that I’ve observed is that Manny Pacquiao has never slandered or made false accusations to degrade or defame Floyd Mayweather Jr, but Mayweather has done all of the above to Manny Pacquiao and it seems the Mayweather fans are playing follow the leader by agreeing with these false allegations.
I am not one of these fans who just slams a fighter to make another fighter look better. I am a Filipino and I appreciate the skills of Floyd Mayweather, he is one of the greatest boxers I have ever seen and before I ever heard of Manny Pacquiao I was already watching Floyd on ESPN and HBO boxing shows. His skills are something to behold and a true boxing fan will recognize that he really utilizes the sweet science and can make great fighters look clueless against him. My complaint with Floyd is that he doesn’t use his gifts in the ring or test himself against tougher opposition. Why only fight once a year if you are that skilled? That is what I wonder to myself.
Let us appreciate these two great boxers while they are still active instead of using the same insults over and over again. Remember boxing is just a sport and we shouldn’t take it too seriously, develop a thick skin, and try to control yourself when it comes to criticism. It is okay to oppose another persons views but do so logically and without the vulgar and racial insults.
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Erwin Lastimosa is a long time boxing fan and enjoys boxing discussion with his peers. Some of his favorite fighters are Sugar Ray Leonard, Roberto Duran, Marvin Hagler, Muhammad Ali, Flash Elorde, Mike Tyson and Manny Pacquiao.