Pacquiao-Mayweather: STALEMATE or ZUGZWANG?
By Rene Bonsubre, Jr.
PhilBoxing.com
Mon, 28 Dec 2009
Zugzwang ? a situation in a chess game in which a player is forced to make a disadvantageous or undesirable move. It nearly always leads to the loss of the game.
Stalemate ? a situation in which the king cannot move without putting himself in check; while his other men, if there are any, are immobilized. Stalemate ends in a draw.
Manny Pacquiao vs Floyd Mayweather,Jr. could have been the biggest welterweight fight since Sugar Ray Leonard vs. Thomas Hearns. The way the negotiations have gone, it may go down in boxing history as the most hyped and most anticipated fight that did not happen. It has deteriorated into a pissing contest.
The word ?blood? has been mentioned so many times one would think the protagonists would star in the next vampire movie. A couple of months ago, I wrote an article entitled ?They did it to Lance, Will they do it to Manny??
Well, thanks to the Mayweathers, the witch hunt finally happened.
It is a sad thing that success in sports has been linked to cheating. What is sadder is when a double standard gets imposed on an athlete from the developing world.
Is Filipino success really that hard to accept?
The people responsible for screwing this bout have enough money to feed a third world country. They can always go back to their mansions and sip champagne on cruises or sun bathe on some Caribbean island and laugh about how they took the sporting world for a ride.
Pacquiao has decided to sue Floyd Mayweather Senior and Junior as well as Golden Boy Promotions. He should have sued the elder Mayweather a couple of months ago. But a part of me is delighted that he has finally decided to go to court. Pacquiao is a fighter and not a talker. Still, I would prefer that he fight Mayweather,Jr. inside the ring.
One sure thing about lawsuits, it is the lawyers who get rich.
There was one statement from Pacquiao on TIME-Asia?s November 16 cover story that has lingered inside my head ? ?Di ako bobo.? ?I?m not stupid.?
Pacquiao knows most people look at boxers as just a bunch of dumb jocks. There are also Americans who think that people who are not fluent in English are stupid.
When fierce negotiations for Pacquiao?s fight with Ricky Hatton were ongoing most people thought it was just about the money. It was also about respect; about getting what was rightfully his. Pacquiao showed he was not just another gullible third world waif. He also taught his countrymen a valuable lesson in not selling out and fighting for what is fair.
Pacquiao?s promoter Bob Arum now has his ?final proposal? having both sides make representations to the Nevada State Athletic Commission and making them decide. Whether this move will place the Mayweather camp in zugzwang or will result in a bitter stalemate remains to be seen.
For the meantime, we?ll just go back to our mundane lives and mouth off four letter words over bottles of beer arguing over who is really to blame. As far as how this will affect both fighters? place in history, most boxing fans don?t really care at this point.
The bottom line is this- if we don?t get to see this fight, the fans lose.
Click here to view a list of other articles written by Rene Bonsubre, Jr..
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