Surviving the Pacquiao-Morales bout

Being away for a little over a month now is the longest I’ve ever stayed out of Manila since I moved there.

I’ve always made it a point to come back after a couple of weeks because I either had some things to take care of or I really felt the need to come home already.

This is the longest vacation I’ve ever taken for myself to spend time with my family. I’ve just been very fortunate enough to actually be able to schedule some appointment connected to work and I couldn’t complain about how much I feel I’ve accomplished over the last few weeks.

Since I left Manila, I feel like I’ve been everywhere. From Hawaii, I flew to Los Angeles, and this last weekend, I was in Las Vegas.

I’m having the time of my life! This last trip was quite an experience. I flew over there with a couple of good friends, RD Alba and Carol Castillo.

I’ve never appreciated a four-hour long drive as much as I enjoyed hanging out with these two.

We actually went over there mainly because we were going to watch the Manny Pacquiao-Erik Morales boxing match.

We made a couple of wrong turns on our way there but luckily we made it on time.

There were so many people! Some of them carried the Philippine flag while some carried the Mexican flag.

I ran into Tito Lhar Santiago and Marc Nelson over there also. The Filipino crowd was unbelievable.

I felt they were more hyped up than anyone else. I’m not much of a fan for any type of sport, but I’m surprised at how much excitement the crowd can bring me into.

We managed to get through the crowd and finally met up some of our friends inside and looked for our seats.

Right before the final match, a couple of our other friends came and we decided to move to where they were.

It was so funny how we didn’t realize we were basically the only Filipinos on that side of the whole center.

When it was time to cheer for Morales, everyone else around us were yelling and screaming! I was sort of expecting some kind of chaos right after Pacquiao beat Morales.

I was pretty nervous about that. You can never really tell what people are up to.

After about an hour of waiting for the main match and just chatting with friends, the 30 percent of the crowd who were just standing outside made their way into their seats and filled up the whole place in just a few minutes.

The screaming of the crowd was ridiculously loud and overwhelming. I got so hyped up that I found myself screaming my head off along with them.

Manny’s name was cheered so wonderfully that the people’s voices sounded like a choir. It was beautiful.

The energy was much more different from just watching on TV. There are absolutely no words to explain how overwhelming it was to be there.

We were hoping for a few rounds of excitement and adrenaline rush, but the "Pacman" decided to cut the entertainment short for us in just three rounds with a knock out!

Carol and I were so caught up in the fight that we never noticed everyone else leave around us when Manny won. It was truly a magnificent and memorable experience!

Have a great Sunday!