Pint-sized

It took another diminutive athlete to end the country’s world title drought in boxing since Marlon Tapales lost his world super bantamweight titles late last year. Melvin Jerusalem dethroned the heavily favored Japanese defending champion in the WBC minimumweight title. Sounds like minimum wage. It must be because in less than a month, labor will be more reminded of how they are exploited than rewarded on a day dedicated to them.

Déjà vu. Last year Jerusalem also knocked out another Japanese foe to win the WBO world minimumweight title to end another drought then. But nothing could be drier than today’s drought worsened by climate change. Unfortunately, no boxer can end it. Neither business nor politics. If global warming is caused by human activity, there is no remedy. The cause of the problem cannot solve it. Irreversible.

Thankfully, Jerusalem has the power to defy his personal woes and professional foes. Here is another sob story of a boxer slugging his way out of poverty. But Melvin is yet another proof boxers remain the country’s most reliable stable to deliver the undeliverable.

No one did it better than pound for pound king Manny Pacquiao who now lives like a king. The greatest Filipino athlete is one of the best in world boxing history. Many others before and after him succeeded in the sport but failed after in life. They mishandled the fame and fortune they worked the hardest for. Instant wealth tests character, and many fail the unwritten bar. Majority of lottery winners end up poorer than before they guessed the improbable. Even celebrities self-destruct. Politicians too, including the country.

Amateur boxing still accounts for the most medals in Olympics, four of which are silver. If not for Hidilyn Diaz, the three boxers who medaled in Tokyo would have been better celebrated. No one is complaining. The strongest Filipina deserves the accolade more than anyone else. Anyway, Eumir Marcial and Nesthy Petecio are back to hunt another medal or the elusive gold in Paris. Whether silver medalist Carlo Paalam bade the sport goodbye is not known. Hidilyn too, except that she appears busier defending her thesis than her gold. Don’t take it against her, there are golden ideas in academic papers too. Curiously though, who reads them other than the hard to please meticulous panel?

Why the country succeeds in boxing is a no-brainer. Boxers are categorized according to weight to minimize size and height advantage. It reiterates reality Filipinos have realistic chances in sports with equal opportunity. For in basketball and volleyball, it is a privilege denied to many, especially the short race obsessed with the wrong sport.

The weight division is the great equalizer of the greater disparity in form that translates to substance. In law it is called substantial distinction. But sometimes we suffer unequal protection. In life it is called equity. But most of the time we suffer inequality.