MANILA, Philippines - If you don’t like it, then heck, don’t watch it.
Manny Pacquiao, normally soft-spoken and mild-mannered, lashed back at his critics who’ve written, called and branded his May 7 fight with Shane Mosley as “garbage.”
Some have gone to the extent of calling for a boycott of the fight.
“Funny, these same writers who ask for a boycott almost always cover my fights, anyway,” Pacquiao wrote in his widely-read column with philboxing.com the other day.
Pacquiao is fresh from a long family vacation, and must have had enough of those saying he should have fought someone else, or something else, maybe a 147-lb kangaroo, than Mosley.
“You know it’s garbage. I know it’s garbage. Heck, even Bob Arum, the guy who is putting the money up to stage the Manny Pacquiao-Shane Mosley fight, which will take place May 7 in Las Vegas, knows it’s garbage,” wrote one.
“A lot of people say this is going to be an easy fight, those experts who right from the start never believed in the ability of a Filipino as small as I am,” Pacquiao wrote.
“One influential writer said it’s garbage, when I think he’d never been into a real fight or have put on a pair of gloves or even wrapped his hands,” he added.
Pacquiao said there were also calls for a boycott of his recent fight with Antonio Margarito who was called a cheater.
It’s not Pacquiao’s fault that he’d gone undefeated in five years, and beaten his last 13 opponents, most of whom so much bigger, heavier and stronger than he is, great fighters like David Diaz, Oscar dela Hoya, Ricky Hatton, Miguel Cotto and Margarito, who was knocked out by Mosley in 2009.
It shouldn’t be his fault either if he ends up beating the hell out of Mosley, whom Arum had described as the “best fight out there” for Pacquiao, and not Juan Manuel Marquez or Andre Berto.
Pacquiao’s legal adviser, Franklin Gacal, said they expect the pay-per-view sales for this fight to exceed one million.
There’s no easy fight when you’re the pound-for-pound champion because everybody wants to beat you.
“This is all I can say,” said Pacquiao.
“There is never an easy fight. Every time I step into the ring, I risk my life and my future. I had to find ways to negate the advantages in size of Diaz, Dela Hoya, Hatton, Cotto, (Joshua) Clottey and Margarito. I have stepped up to face men easily bigger and taller than me.”
“To say that every fighter I face in the ring does not deserve attention talks about ignorance. How can a fight be easy when I have been working my hardest efforts every single time? I am no Superman. When I get hit, I pretend I did not get hurt so as to frustrate my opponent. That’s part of the sacrifice!” Pacquiao wrote.
He’s in for a fight, and it’s no garbage.