Sunday, April 19, 2015

Why My God Won’t Show Up for Mayweather-Pacquiao


Freddie Roach once said that the mega fight between Floyd Mayweather Jr. and Manny Pacquiao is “a battle between Good and Evil”, Pacquiao being the Angel and Mayweather the Devil. Truth is, Manny and Floyd are both believers. With regards to Floyd’s materialistic ways he insisted that for him, God is still a priority. But to tell you guys, my God won’t be at MGM Grand on Saturday night, not because of the costly ticket, my dear readers. Nor because of the Churchmen and pastors singing the Philippine National Anthem that any hoodwink may consider as an infringement of the Constitutional clause on Separation of Church and the State. I’ll tell you later why my God won’t show up for Mayweather-Pacquiao.

In one of his Instagram posts Floydie explained his outlook about his God: "God will not give you anything you can't handle. That's why God gave me the best hands in the business to pray with, box with and count money with." God knows that no one is so wicked he never once in his life show in his heart something that God made. But since this is more of a sports write-up, I would not expound on Miguel de Unamuno’s theological concept of the difference between “God Idea” and “God Himself” as a rejoinder.

What matters most now, since both proclaimed their belief in God, of whatever basis they both have, on whose side the Almighty will be on May 3? But to tell you, a draw is not a remote possibility. Compared to his former opponents, Justine Beiber’s man now seems to be more kind against Justine Fortune’s bet. Pretty Boy is now “saintly” judging from his latest “no-trash-talking” and reserve gesture not taking into consideration his sincerity or lack of it.

Mayweather is his God’s child too. The child in TBE once declared, again on his Instagram account: "I am guilty! I'm materialistic and I'm motivated by money … but God is first in my life." How could a loving Father censure his son with such statements of loving acceptance (?) with such proclamation no matter how ridiculous it is conveyed? If my God isn’t God of love, understanding and forgiveness, my God ceases to be God.

“God will deliver Mayweather into my hands,” says Pacquiao on what he expects from his God. But in boxing as well as in life, we have to struggle and fight it out ourselves not relying on the deliverer solely taking action. In boxing, it is the boxer who delivers blow and punches, not God,- yours, theirs and mine. Reducing my God’s role to that of Air21 deliveryman and not as co-actor in our every undertaking is in a way, blasphemous.  

But my God would not be with Kenny Bayless or Tony Weeks on top of the ring neither with boxing camps or corners on that much anticipated bout, or with Al Bernstein and the rest of the crew for its media coverage. The righteousness and evilness the two champions in their personal lives, past and present, were not part of the Tale of the Tape like in any other boxing match that we have in mind.

Both sons of their respective Gods no doubt, Floydie and Manny are bestowed with the ability to hit their fellow pugilists would finally  be meeting each other in the grandest “fistory” of all time scheduled in the majestic basilica of gambling and entertainment in the whole universe, a place where spirituality has no room. Las Vegas is a vineyard of vice where God is irrelevant. And as I have told you a while ago, my God wouldn’t be in the house because in there, my God is a persona non grata. Would God dare to be a spectator in a sport where the ultimate objective is to hurt and maim your opponent? Be reminded too that God abhors den of gamblers and love of money. In the so-called Sweet Science, like in any other sciences, God and anything about God are less asked for.

If God would not be around, what will happen? Between bells, both Mayweather and Pacquiao will solely rely on their own style, athleticism, power and experience. The outcome of the fight will be greatly resolved by their ability to knock-out or punch each other out and not much on their God’s interference. In a profane and brutal sport of boxing, action has more weight and might than the mysticism and enormity of the player’s prayer. In every boxer-believer, fighting is a conviction that there is God up there. Action and prayer, though do not diametrically opposed, cannot go hand-in-hand evenly in the psyche of a pound-for-pounder. I would not mind being less-Godly and be a rock-hard, blood-thirsty boxing buff on that day!

The outcome of this super fight will be determined more by the American and the Filipino atop the ring and not by my God who is not bias against any race or religion. It’s another story when it would go by a distance and end into the scorecard or a controversial upshot.

It is because the impious gods and demigods of the Mecca of Boxing, unlike my God, would be there with all their mighty influence…

----------
(Photo : Jec-Hon)




  

No comments:

Post a Comment