Chicago-based Fil-Am folksinger defends Pacquiao from critics
By Alex P. Vidal
PhilBoxing.com
Tue, 25 Mar 2008
CHICAGO ? Critics of newly crowned World Boxing Council (WBC) super featherweight titlist Manny Pacquiao include not only biased and disgruntled Mexican-Americans still mourning the fall of Juan Manuel Marquez and fans of this city?s pride, WBC lightweight ruler David Diaz, but also some Filipino-Americans who have no love lost for the 29-year-old pride of Gen. Santos City, Philippines.
But for Luisito V. Macatual, Jr., popularly known in music industry here and in the Philippines as ?Chito Ilonggo?, Pacquiao ?undoubtedly bested Marquez? in their title fight in Las Vegas last March 15.
?But you cannot please everybody,? lamented Macatual, a Filipino-American USA Hall of Fame awardee in 2001 and 2002 here for music and song entertainment. ?What I cannot understand is that some Fil-Ams who did not even watch the fight were the ones who criticized Manny Pacquiao and questioned his victory over Marquez.?
Macatual said some of those who did not believe that Pacquiao beat Marquez in their WBC 130-lb championship match ?were merely influenced by fans of Marquez who continue to sourgrape and make excuses because their bet was beaten.?
He cited the incident last March 23 in Niles City, five miles away from here, where a woman Fil-Am restaurant owner insisted before her mostly Filipino customers that ?Pacquiao was only lucky he scored a knockdown (in the third round) or else, he would have lost?.
Macatual quickly retorted: ?No, I beg to disagree. In fact, it was Marquez who was lucky because he was saved by the bell when Pacquiao was about to finish him off after that knockdown.?
Macatual said the woman may have seen the fight on HBO?s pay-per-view ?but most of those in attendance were her employees rooting for Marquez.?
An American fight fan working at the VIP lounge of the O?Hare International Airport argued that ?Pacquiao clearly lost to Marquez.? Macatual immediately ribbed him: ?You are entitled to your own opinion but you must consider that Pacquiao scored a knockdown in the third round and a knockdown is always a knockdown in any language.?
Fil-Ams here are still agog over the ?Unfinished Business? main event even as they continued to make post-fight analysis during the Lenten break in several parties.
The 64-paged The Philippine Weekly, a publication in Illinois, in its March 21, 2008 issue, carried the news about Pacquiao?s victory extensively with seven post-fight stories in the front and inside pages.
Those who failed to watch the fight because they were working grabbed copies of newspapers that carried the coronation of Pacquiao as the new WBC champion.
Click here to view a list of other articles written by Alex P. Vidal.
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