An indicator of my current level of sickness is my presence this morning at mass at 6.30 am in Thai. We went to this mass because there is a major boxing event this morning featuring Philippine national hero Manny Pacquiao taking on Oscar de la Hoya live from Las Vegas. Just to remind you, if not confuse you, we are in Ratchaburi, Thailand! So welcome in real terms to the global village!
Luna tells me that Pacquiao fights bring the Philippines to a standstill. He is a national icon. Filipinos say you are least likely to be a victim of crime when Manny is fighting! So we have the fight coming live this morning from Vegas and we have some more filipinos coming round for the action.
Well Manny did the business in a sensational perfomance which pleased everybody here. We had Luna, Annie, Flo & Mimi from the Philippines plus myself and Lars Olav from Sweden. It was thrilling. I know nothing about boxing but it appeared that Manny had a game plan and stuck to it ..... speed and motion.
So looks like the next match for Manny will be against Ricky Hatton, from the UK.I am for Manny!
And phonecalls and SMSs were flying between here and the Philippines.
There will be one major party today in the Philippines and why not. I understand that thing, the little fighter on whose hopes a whole nation lies. The Irish had it in Barry McGuigan. But Manny, he is the man! From what I have read La Hoya earned US$ 30 million against Manny's US$15 million. In fairness to La Hoya he went out with dignity and he handed his laurel gracefully over to Manny. I think we are going to hear a lot more about Manny in the next few years and I am really looking forward to watching his future fights. The little man from General Santos in the deep south of the Philippines, in the troubled Mindanao region.
Well congratulations to Manny and to all filipinos everywhere!
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