So, yesterday, Sunday, was fight day. Manny Pacquiao vs. Ricky Hatton. I wrote an article on Friday in anticipation of the bout, and although it was a very short match, it certainly lived up to my expectations. I was a little worried for Manny, maybe he had not taken the “Hitman” seriously enough, but he proved me wrong, knocking out the Brit in just the second round of the fight!
What a fight it was too. Very short, but also thrilling. The day was somewhat comical here, though.
First, I had heard about so many sites where the fight could be seen over the Internet, so I decided to give it a try. During some of the fights in the undercard, I started surfing around to see if I could find any live feeds of the boxing. Quickly, I found a site, and told a few friends about it. I watched three matches streamed live on the Internet, very good quality, and I was excited for the main event to get going. Then, about 30 minutes before the Pacquiao Hatton fight every feed that I could find had gone dead! Oh well, what can you expect.
So, with no way to see the fight live, Feyma and I sat down in front of the TV and tuned in to the Pay per View channel for the fight. The signal was scrambled, but you could listen to the audio, though, which was interesting.
After the fight was over, we switched over the GMA TV network from Manila. They had the rights to the fight, and would be playing the fight on a delayed basis. About 3 hours after the fight had ended, it came on GMA. We knew the outcome, but still wanted to see the blow by blow action. So, as the fight came on we started watching, and they would show about 30 seconds of actual fight related stuff, then 5 minutes or more of commercials! As a matter of fact, while the Philippine National Anthem was being played, they would show pictures of Philippine Airlines planes flying, and obvious commercial for Philippine Airlines during the National Anthem! Unbelievable.
Anyway, it took over an hour for all the pre-fight activities to finish and then the actual fight started showing on free local TV. What a thrilling outcome! At the start of round 1, Hatton was looking quite strong, but about half way through the round, Manny really took charge and he never looked back again.
Now, the question comes, who is left for Manny to fight? Of course, the logical choice would be Floyd Mayweather Junior. He has been in retirement, but is said to be coming out of retirement in anticipation of a fight against Pacquiao. Mayweather was previously the only person to have defeated Hatton. It would be a logical choice, no doubt, and I hope to see it happen.
Manny Pacquiao has said many times that following the Hatton fight, he would fight only one more time and then retire. Will it happen that way? Well, one reason why this may happen is because Manny is really set on entering the Political ring next. He wants to run for Congress, or some other office. He ran in 2006 for Congresman from South Cotabato Province, but was roundly defeated. One reason given for his defeat is that he is too popular. Huh? Well, people voted against him because they didn’t want to see him leave boxing! It’s hard to say what will happen, but I think that Manny could fight for a couple more years, make a ton more money in the boxing ring, and then move on to some other career, or just relax and enjoy life. I personally hope that he will stear clear from Politics, I believe it can only tarnish his good name.
Congratulations to the PacMan! I hope we’ll see a number of more fights from Manny, and that he is successful on any future fights that he engages in.
hi bob,
Manny's running for office does not make sense to me at all, of course you know it already, the only reason why people running for office in the philippines is to *make a lot of money* and manny has a lot of it!. i know.. i know… you would say that it is not the only reason, maybe money matter is not the reason for manny to run for office but definitely, if he chooses to run for office, he must prepare his bank account as it will be drained in no time, (especially with the freeloader politicians!)
Manny maybe the best in the world when it comes to boxing, but politics especially in the philippines is not his arena. and when I think about it, manny is not that smart when it comes to politics and maybe that is what the philippines need, a person with lots of money and no reason to steal for more and not smart enough to run the office, well, the smarter the politician is, the more money they will steal. I just hope that if manny decided to run for office, i hope he is dumb enough to steal and be corrupt!
oh well, that is philippines politics!
WOOT!!!!! PACQIAO! PACQUIAO!
I was at the MGM Grand last night and man was there a lot of people! The only other place I saw so many Philippine flags in one place was the departure area at NAIA 1. I even saw Sen. Bong Revilla! I really wished I saw the fight live, would've been thrilling…. but I wouldn't have last night any other way, it turned out to be pretty damn awesome, it was Prom night for me 😉 and we were having dinner at the MGM.
Anyways, GO MANNY! Thanks for making me $20 richer, I'm gonna need it since I'm near-broke after last night 😀
All he needs to do now, is beat the living daylights out of Mayweather so that his dad can't talk smack any more.
well done to manny for the KO victory.It,s always great fun watching these bouts in the company of locals, they can get rather animated to say the least! Although I have noticed a number of "clashes of the head" incidents that have happened in some of his recent fights. Maybe thats a risk in close quarter boxing, I don,t know, I,m just saying
I had the some trouble with the net too Bob . everywhere I went the servers was overloaded so ..I play chess online and watched the scores ..after it was over..heard nothing seen nothing .. Oh well..Phil n Jess
Hi dans – I am with you 100%, you are exactly correct on this.
Hi Jong – I hope you had a nice Prom! The fight might have been better, though!
Hi Daryl – Yes, people here get quite animated when they watch Manny fight! It's fun to watch and to participate too!
Hi Phil – Yeah, the Internet delivery turned out to be a downer…. When I couldn't get a good feed, I felt about the same as Hatton did when he hit the mat! 😆
Hi Bob,
So how much you paid for your PPV? & do you know why you had bad signal? Word is that because of the shortness of the fight, most advertisers lost their allotted air time, that's why the match is being played again & again this time w/ those advertisers who didn't make it. It's horrible not to be able watch a thrilling match like this under real time. What makes it more annoying is you are subjected to those commercials.
Why can't this network broadcast live match like this just like the way NFL gets to every TV here in the US? Valuable air time gets to the highest bidder who air their commercials for the first time on TV.
PPV here is about $60. It is so worth it because a lot of people can watch it. It's full house! It's like fiesta here. I understand there's lot of free places to watch it there but there's not enough space for most. I saw frustrated fans who didn't make it to sport arenas.
Hi Roy – What I am saying is that we did not buy the PPV, not even sure how much PPV is here. We planned to stream the fight on the Internet, and that didn't work out, so we "watched" the scrabmbled PPV channel. The picture was not really watchable, but you could hear the audio and listen to the announcers call the fight. We enjoyed it.
I THINK MANNY IS TRUE TO HEART , MAYBE HE THINKS HE CAN TAKE A PART OF THE PHILIPPINES IN A NEW DIRECTION IN HIS OWN WAY.LOOK AT HIS ROOTS.FROM SELLING BREAD IN DIGOS AS A RUNAWAY CHILD TO WHERE HE IS TODAY. HE HAS HAD A MAJOR TURN AROUND IN HIS LIFE AND I THINK HE IS A MAN WHO KNOWES WHAT HE WANTS IN LIFE. MY THOUGHTS ONLY.
I reckon there,s gotta be a movie script of his life story around somewhere.
hell who woulda thought an actor would have been one of Americas better presidents…maybe Manny is on to something….one thing for sure…no one would argue with him at arms length!!!
I hope he will be as good a congressman or president as he is being a boxer. For the country's sake.
Hi Jerry – I don't think Manny ever lived in Digos. He did sell bread and other things (like lottery tickets) on the Streets of GenSan as a child, and he also did that kind of thing in Manila too. He certainly does know what he wants.
Hi brian – you have a point there…
Hi bobby – the country does certainly need it!
I think it would be a big mistake if he join the political arena. IMHO, he would make a bigger contribution to the Philippines and his countrymen if he stays out of it.
Maybe he can start some sort of organization to help young people… build a gym/sports complex… train young men who is out on the street in boxing who would other wise live a life of petty crime. He can get big donation from the boxing industry to help him get started.
Hi Bob
I was one touting the internet and justin.tv. I found several sites as you did that cut out at various times during the undercard. Although the justin.tv connection didn't come through their chat rooms were constantly providing links to other live feeds. I found one that said to refresh your browser and 2 minutes before the main event jackpot! I wish I could remember the site but it worked and I watched the main event and the post fight show. My daughter who lives about 15 min away was mad today because she paid $50 and I watched for free. As far as Manny running for office after all he's done for the Philippines I ask everyone let Manny do what he wants and support it!
Hello Bob I did not get to watch fight so thanks for this one. I am so glad Pacman won and also glad I did not pay two watch 2 rounds. This man is fantastic. About running for office, at least he will not be running to get more money. Maybe if he gets office high enough, he could be that man the country needs to start the change from so much corruption. Oh one person will never end it but one person can start the change. Just a mans that doesn't even live there yet opinion. Thanks so much for this blog, nothing even on news here.
Hi Miss August – I guess it's up to him to decide, but my opinion is same as yours!
Hi Dan – I'm glad you found a link that worked. I tried lots of links from the chat boards on Justin.tv, but could not find anything that worked.
Hi Andy – I'm glad that I was able to provide you with some information, even if only a little!
I got to watch the fight live online through a free program called SopCast. Easy to install and easy to use. It lets you watch all kinds of tv channels. I googled "Sopcast Pacquiao vs Hatton" and it gave me a channel to enter into the program. Very handy program that lets you get lots of different channels and PPV events like wrestling, boxing, and MMA. I am in no way affiliated with this program just wanted to share the wealth with everyone here for future events. Google "SopCast" if you want to download it for free.
I believe Mayweather Jr is scheduled to fight Juan Manuel Marquez and Pacquiao may fight the winner of it.
I bet he is talking retirement since his long time trainer Freddie Roach is stricken with Parkinsons and there is no telling how much longer he will be able to train him before fights. They have already brought on Michael Moore the boxer to take his place eventually.
The only good thing about Pacquiao getting into politics is that hopefully he will have enough money to not be corrupted or have a need to steal. He could be much more effective in different capacity like charitable organizations, starting more businesses to create jobs, speaking to children, updating books in schools, etc.
The fight can be seen here for any that missed it.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3D-F-bJti3w
Hi LJ – It's been known that Roach had Parkinson Disease for well over a year now, so I don't think that would have anything to do with Manny's retirement. He has said for a long time that he intends to retire before the 2010 elections.
Talaga? must have gone straight to VCD.
Any one know what kind of political beliefs Manny has? It would be fine if he entered politics at some point but I hope he waits until he is out of his prime boxing years. On second thought maybe he better stay out of politics following that fiasco of him saying he was going over to ABS-CBN
Bob I just found out the free tv site I gave Josey allowed her and most importantly watch the fight. Here it is if you want save it for the next one http://www.your-motor.com/
Hi Daryl – Ha ha… no it did play in the theaters. 🙂
Hi Andy – I tried that site myself, but the fight was blacked out on there.
Like a lot of people i was disappointed to hear that Manny wanted to go into politics. It was almost as if he had said he wanted to start selling condo timeshares in Mexico. That's the only profession i can think of with less integrity than politics in the Philippines. But how will that ever change if good people don't aspire to public service?
Manny is a hero, not because he wins fights, but because of what he says and does outside the ring. He's popular, he's courageous, and he might even be honest. He could get elected. I think the question most people have is would he change politics, or would politics change him? If politics changes him it would be very sad for him and the public. But if he changes politics, it would be an rare opportunity for reform in the Philippines.
Manny doesn't have to get elected to serve the public. He could do a lot of good with his fame and wealth and the good will of the people. If he got elected and succumbed to the corruption he would certainly lose the good will of people and nothing would change. But if he were able to withstand the power of corruption as well as he has withstood blows in the boxing ring, he might be able to be a hero in the political arena too.
Good luck, Manny, and God bless in whatever you do.
Ho pogidaga – Manny, I believe is a hero because he uplifts the Filipino people. That's the kind of thing a hero is supposed to do. Thanks to Manny's fame, he is able to do that! Manny is not selfish, which is a big plus for him!
Hello Bob.
Hope you will have a good trip to Cebu.
I am just reading the may 11 issue of Time. They claim that Manny Pacquiao is among the 100 most infuential people in the world. His political influense to the people in RP, is being compared to the one of Nelson Mandela to South africa.
Interesting point about the number of commercials, and the GMA network. Instead of direct regulation of commercial content on TV, the Philippines essentially gave that responsibility over to rhe Philippine National Association of Broadcasters (KBP here in the Phils). However, belonging to the KNP is optional, and when the KBP rules came into conmflict with GMS's business interest, the whole corporation, and all they many affiliate station, just resigned from the KBP … so, essentially no regulation. Can you inmagine how many commercials would be on the Super Bowl or the World Series if there were no government and US NAB guidelines?
The rights to Manny's fights are owned by a company known as Sun Sports, not a TV network. That was the basis for the controversy/confusion a month oe so ago when Manny made his statement that he was switching networks tu ABS-CBN. Like many fighters iun the 'game' of boxing, he found out, too late, that he had no control over the rights at all. Star Sports already had a contract with GMA. That's the wild and woolly side of the boxing 'game'. Now that Manny is tremendously more popular, who knows what kind of deals he might be able to negotiate in the future, but he'll never know, his broadcast destiny is controlled ny others. Anyway, great fight Manny.
Hi Dave – I think you mis-spoke, just by accident. I believe that the company that owns the rights to Manny's fights is called "Solar Sports" if I am not mistaken.