The fan gap

Is a form of colonial mentality creating a gap in the Filipino sports fan’s ability to recognize our athletes’ talent?

If you were to ask the average Filipino fan, he or she would be able to name Manny Pacquiao and Nonito Donaire Jr. as world boxing champions, several PBA players, some members of the Philippine Azkals, maybe our top URCC fighters because the sport is growing. But when you go down the line to other national athletes, even some world champions in their sports, or even regional champions, they go blank. Why is that?

Our culture has often been criticized for being too American, ranging from our pop culture to our fastfood choices and even favorite sports. In fact, the derogatory term “little brown Americans” was coined to describe Filipinos around the 1960’s to 1970’s. This was because of our penchant for absorbing everything American, such as basketball, which was successfully piped into our consciousness through the educational system at the turn of the 20th century.

Is it the fault of the sports media for reporting only world-level or national competitions? That’s doubtful. Part of the responsibilities of journalists is to be as comprehensive as possible. Granted, this is influenced by the most popular sports and sports involving Filipinos, but our newspapers include European football, Formula One and winter sports. The new twist is that almost all newspapers have online editions which are sometimes updated during the day, sometimes including interview videos and latest announcements.

Perhaps sports exposure on television is the culprit, a double-edged sword which continues to strengthen sports that are already strong by giving more of the prohibitively rare airtime to sports that already have an audience, at the expense of more developmental programs. We probably have the most airtime devoted to basketball anywhere in the world, and are used to it.

This is not to say that new sports cannot be given a break. For example, ABS-CBN’s eleventh-hour decision to gamble on the Philippine Azkals’ participation in the AFF Suzuki Cup was greatly responsible for catapulting them to the fame they now enjoy despite their sporadic appearances and struggles against Southeast Asian talent. That event created a snowball of demand which has made the Younghusband brothers household names and in-demand product endorsers. 

The same can now be said for women’s volleyball, both semi-pro and amateur. The audience just reached critical mass, and circumstances fell into place. Ateneo and La Salle developed their own rivalry, each had strong and attractive players, and as a second semester sport, it filled the vacuum left by the end of the men’s basketball season. That and the Shakey’s V-League also gave college players something to aspire for.

But what explains the light-year leap over Southeast Asian and Asian talent in our minds? We need to conquer ASEAN before Asia, and Asia before the rest of the world. Can we even name five of our gold medalists from the last Southeast Asian Games? The void may partly be caused by the lack of glamor in certain Southeast Asian competitions, and the perception that we’re either going to get cheated, or will totally dominate, anyway.

In 1989, the Orient-Pacific Boxing Federation or OPBF rechristened its perpetual Fighter of the Year trophy the Flash Elorde trophy. This was in recognition of the Filipino’s talent in the ring throughout the decades. But this awareness has not reached the mainstream audience here. Even in SEA Games coverages, if it isn’t for the traditional events like basketball, billiards, boxing, taekwondo, athletics and swimming, we might not watch altogether and instead just wait for the nightly highlight reels.

There is some good news, though, and it’s in the breakout sport of mixed martial arts. One FC is gaining recognition as a force to be reckoned with in Asia. Its owner and CEO Victor Cui is the first Asian mixed martial arts organizer recognized by the international MMA community. One FC, to its credit, is one of two organizations bringing Filipino talent to the regional and eventually world stage. They will have another big card at the Mall of Asia Arena in December.

Meanwhile, the WBC Muaythai division and World Team USA are likewise electing to stage world-class mixed martial arts events in the Philippines. Their showcase event “Fight for Peace” held at the Resorts World Manila’s Newport Performing Arts Theatre Wednesday was beamed to a very large audience in China. The prime movers envision their events as a platform for Filipino martial artists to challenge the best fighters in Asia and the world. 

The Filipino athlete is so talented, he or she deserves recognition for all their accomplishments, not just here or on the world stage, but everywhere else in between, as well.