In love, absence makes the heart grow fonder. In sports, it can mean disaster.
Since losing a shocking knockout defeat in the hands of perennial nemesis Juan Manuel Marquez in December last year, Filipino boxing icon Manny Pacquiao has not taken a single fight.
The lofty worldwide ranking he once held has since slipped from his tight grip. His once omnipresence in the daily Filipino life has been relegated to the hardest core of boxing fans and political supporters and observers. And except for some occasional mention of him in the Philippine press, the re-elected Sarangani representative has largely gone unnoticed.
Once the darling of Congress and apple in the eye of Malacañang, Pacquiao has been reduced into ‘begging’ for plum chairmanship of ‘minor’ House of Representative committees, in which he failed to get despite joining the administration party.
This was unthinkable two years ago when Pacquiao was at the apex of his popularity and everybody in his camp, including Top Rank promoter Bob Arum, was suggesting he could someday run for president and become one.
Pacquiao’s journey is one of many ebbs and tide. Of twist and turns. Over the last decade, especially at the turn of the millennium, it was a tide of unequaled success in the sports that made him rich and famous. So much so that boxing gifted him his soon to be regular day job. Come to think of it, it is always daytime in the Philippines whenever he fights in the US. And it will be daytime in this part of the world when he goes up against Brandon Rios in Macau comes November.
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