Puppet on a string

Among the many things that can be said about Manny Pacquiao with certainty, there are at least three that stand out with extra clarity: 1. He is one of the richest men in the country. 2. He is one of the most famous men on earth. 3. Despite all this, he is just a puppet on a string.

I am sure everybody who gets to read this will find no cause to take issue with the first two points. But I am equally sure the third is provocative enough as to require some explanation. So here:

Even before Pacquiao went up the ring to fight Shane Mosley, the people around him were already scouting for his next opponent. And not only were they already ticking off a number of names, they already had a date and a place to stage the fight.

Then, hardly had Pacquiao gone down the ring after beating Mosley than an earnest offer was handed over to Juan Manuel Marquez to be that next opponent, in a fight in November in Las Vegas where he is to earn a guaranteed purse of $5 million.

But even before the handlers of Marquez got the chance to respond by either agreeing to the match or matching the offer and seek another opponent, the handlers of Pacquiao came out with a follow-up offer that if Marquez wins, a rematch with Pacquiao will next earn him $10 million.

It is simply incredible how the people around Pacquiao can see that far into the future. Even before he got into one fight, they are already seeing the next fight, and then the one after that. And just as incredible is how Pacquiao seems so out of all these happenings.

But as Pacquiao himself said over and over again, he is just a fighter who will fight whoever his handlers will place before him. In other words, it is not he himself who is charting his own destiny but the people around him.

This would have been a neat arrangement except for one very tiny thing: It is Pacquiao who uses his body to do the bidding of his handlers. If a lucky punch by an opponent he had no hand in choosing blinds Pacquiao, it is only Pacquiao who goes blind, not his handlers.

At this point in his life, with all his riches and his fame, one would have thought the least Pacquiao could do with his life was make his own decisions and not leave the responsibility of charting his own destiny to other people.

These people are only after one thing — make as much money out of Pacquiao while they still can. If they were truly sincere in looking after the interests of Pacquiao, who has been more than a friend to them, they would have asked him to retire already.

After all, there is nothing more left for Pacquiao to prove. He has fought and beaten some of the best boxers in the world and no one is expected to match his record of winning eight titles in eight different weight divisions.

True there is the question of Floyd Mayweather Jr. But those who keep entertaining that question are only those who salivate at the kind of money they can make if the fight happens. The truth of the matter is, Mayweather has lost all reason to be a worthy opponent of Pacquiao.

A man who beats up a woman, keeps running afoul of the law, and keeps inventing alibis to avoid fighting Pacquiao, deprives such a fight, if it ever happens (God forbid), of the honor and dignity it would have deserved. If at all, all that fight will settle is the question of purse.

As to Marquez, Pacquiao has no reason to fight him a third time. The big picture exists only in Marquez’s swollen head. The guy never won any of his first two fights against Pacquiao. Okay, so Pacquiao nearly blew it both times. But he was still winning. Marquez never won once.

Yet they are being pitted against each other again. What in heavens for if not just for the money. If Pacquiao wins, it proves nothing that he has not proven before. If Pacquiao loses, he loses what he didn’t have to. And if tragedy strikes, don’t say nobody tried to warn you.