Fighting to survive

I had to leave the Cebu City Marriott Hotel, where I watched the fight of Manny Pacquiao and Joshua Clottey, after the third round as I had to be across the street at the City Sports Club Cebu to cover a basketball game for TV.

After avoiding the past several Pacquiao fights and deciding to watch again, I thought I was going to miss much – it wasn’t exactly what happened.

The fight was a bore, said many. But boxing is not all brute force and having no knockout doesn’t always mean the fight was dull. Of course it is always more entertaining when the fighters slug it out like they’re in a barroom brawl, but that is not the case in top-notch bouts.

I would not dispute the points raised by many about Clottey being over defensive that he forgot to punch.

In the three rounds that I managed to watch, I saw how Pacquiao used his speed and his agility to land punches despite the rock-solid defense of his Ghanian foe.

Since there are so many who claim to be boxing experts, that’s enough on the Pacquiao-Clottey fight and I’ll switch to something that actually excited me more later that day.

Nope I don’t mean the cheerleders of the Dallas Cowboys, who sang the national anthem of the USA.

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While I missed most of the boxing match earlier last Sunday, I watched all 49 laps (including the commercial breaks) of the season-opening Bahrain Grand Prix that featured the return of Michael Schumacher after three years of retirement.

Schumi started 7th on the grid and finished the race at 6th place. I’d say, not bad for somebody who has been away quite long, but still not probably good enough for his fans, who have been expecting much more.

The 1-2 finish of Ferrari wasn’t exactly as exciting as it used to be despite the fact that I still have so many things scarlet at home from caps, shirts, and all other small trinkets, mementos of the Schumi days and the years after he left the team.

Aside from Schumi’s return, what got me very interested in the race was checking how the new changes in the rules, particularly the ‘no refueling’ rule would affect the race.

That night, I thought that the drivers were simply racing to finish and not necessarily to move up in position.

It became a waiting game. Drivers waited for the man in front to commit a mistake and then they pounced when the opportunity is there.

Sebastian Vettel, who started at the pole position found himself dropping three places down after his car suffered engine trouble.

I was hoping to see some of the old Schumi ways, but I didn’t see much aggressiveness. I’m sure it wasn’t the fact that he just came back and when I read the comments of the drivers after the race, I figured that I got it right.

The new rule on refueling may have cut the costs for the teams, but it also made F-1 racing less of a spectacle. Yeah, just like watching Clottey raise his guard the entire 12 rounds against Pacman. Oops, I can’t help but rub it in.

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MILESTONES: I am extending belated birthday greetings to Ka Bino Guerrero, Joyce Sosoban and Lilibeth Ducut-Abais, who all turned a year older last Monday.

The same goes to Alvin Guangco, Gia Reformina-Abellana, Grace Quisido, and my cousin Candice Lebumfacil, who celebrated yesterday.

Today’s greetings go to Ahmed Cuizon, Dennis Alcarez, Krissi Banzon-Barnard, and Sandy Chiongbian-Gonzales.

More power to all of you!   (FREEMAN NEWS)