The Fall of the Golden Nugget: Victory Anew for "Pac-Man"

It was lopsided from the beginning, although you'll probably think I’m saying this because the fight between Manny Pacquiao and Oscar De La Hoya already ended. Wrong. I predicted a major beating of the "Golden Boy" of boxing. And so, yes, it will go down in history not only as one of the best fights ever, but a most disgraceful mismatch.

However, the “Golden Boy” (now reduced to a Golden Nugget) definitely still had something up his sleeves (or in this case inside his gloves) to try to prove the whole world of his worth, besides he did not become the 10-time world champion that he is (or was) for nothing. But on this occasion, he was nothing; ended up nothing.

Talent is that which is in a man's power; genius is that in whose power a man is. ~James Russell Lowell

At first I thought it will only be about money, and everybody knew how much was in store for both fighters who are rich beyond the imagination of wanna-be pugilists who are still young and teeming with ambition.

De La Hoya’s age made the deal for Manny done; doomed “Golden Boy” to the fate he knew so well. In boxing, as with great fighters of old, trimming one’s weight as you age spells danger as my officemate Erwin says—it’s retroactive and just wont do the job.

The human story does not always unfold like a mathematical calculation on the principle that two and two make four. Sometimes in life they make five or minus three; and sometimes the blackboard topples down in the middle of the sum and leaves the class in disorder and the pedagogue with a black eye. ~Winston Churchill

Now that the world has seen how Pacquiao mauled Mr. Golden Nugget, he will receive all the respect that he deserves as the best pound-for-pound boxer of his time, because beating a legend—although who got a little older—is still beating a legend. So next time those doomsayers of Manny speak of anything, here’s a little hint: there is that magic in the intellect.

A person often meets his destiny on the road he took to avoid it. ~Jean de La Fontaine