Trouble in Paradise
Some ring observers have noticed that Manny Pacquiao was not in his usual self during his walk from the dressing room to the ring against Juan Manuel Marquez. Gone were the bright smiles, the happy hand gestures and that extra bounce on his feet that all characterized his ring entrances in the past. If one has watched Pacquiao’s fights before, one will probably notice the difference in his demeanor.
It seemed that Manny Pacquiao was not 100% focused during the fight. There were things that were probably bothering his mind. Just days prior to the fight, there were some reports coming out of the Philippines that there was trouble in Manny Pacquiao’s homefront and even in his camp.
There was this rumor or news that Pacquiao and his wife, Jinkee, were not in good terms because of his infidelities and were seeking an annulment. And to add insult to injury, there was another rumor going around that Pacquiao sired another baby from another woman, a 23-year-old culinary arts student. And given his recent preponderance for giving ‘royal’ names to his children, a lot of people believed the rumor, even though the alleged mother of the said child has come out and denied that the Filipino pound-for-pound king was the father of King Arthur (yes, that is the baby’s name.) (Note: Buboy Fernandez, Pacquiao’s trainer also had a son named King Arthur). It turned out that Manny Pacquiao stood as one of the godfathers of the child.
Then there was this report by Chino Trinidad on how cold Jinkee was to Manny Pacquiao as well as his rift with his strength and conditioning coach Alex Ariza, wherein he described the usually mild-mannered Pacquiao as ‘very angry’ and listed ‘BlackBerry cellphones’ and an ‘expensive table glass top’ as casualties of the said ‘misunderstanding.’ Alex Ariza eventually admitted that there were just some misunderstandings between him and Manny Pacquiao, and that they were ‘now okay’ just a day heading into the fight.
Now, it just makes us wonder why some of these so-called Manny Pacquiao supporters would propagate these kinds of issues or spin some twists on a plot unrelated to boxing, especially on the eve or just days before Pacquiao’s major fight.
Whether the observations by the casual observers and the rest of the news reports are true remains to be seen.
Conspiracy Theories
There was a lot of smoke coming from boxing’s rumor mill that the fight was fixed and that no matter what Juan Manuel Marquez would have done inside the ring against Manny Pacquiao, he would always end up at the raw end of the bargain if the fight went the distance.
There were also some contentions that Manny Pacquiao intentionally fought lackadaisically and did not push the fight to Juan Manuel Marquez in order to look bad and lure the reluctant Floyd Mayweather, Jr. out of his shell and finally have the courage to fight him in what could be dubbed as boxing’s biggest fight in history.
And then there was this obscene belief held by some people that the mob had a hand in making the fight go the distance, since Manny Pacquiao was the overwhelming favorite to win by knockout. By not knocking out Juan Manuel Marquez and the fight going the distance, just imagine all the money lost by the high-rollers that placed a bet on what particular round Manny Pacquiao would have ended the fight. The same people concocted a scenario that it was a win-win solution for both parties: Manny Pacquiao retains his belt and the mob ends up laughing all the way to the bank.
Sure, these are some really absurd allegations, which without supporting facts will just remain just that — allegations. And based on experience of having traveled to various places, meeting a lot of people of all races in the process, this writer kids you not: America is probably the place were all sorts and forms of doomsday scenarios and other outrageous theories emanate from, and there are more conspiracy theorists living in the United States than any other place in the world. But as they usually say, to each his own.
Memo’s Magic versus Ariza’s Shake
A sidelight of the Manny Pacquiao-Juan Manuel Marquez super fight was the proxy battle between their strength and conditioning coaches. Both very vocal, controversial in their own way and obviously loving the limelight, Alex Ariza and Angel ‘Memo’ Heredia were the subjects of attention as they proclaimed their fighters were in tip-top shape and ready for the battle ahead days before the fight.
While Alex Ariza proclaimed that Manny Pacquiao would end the fight inside the distance, Angel ‘Memo’ Heredia professed that Juan Manuel Marquez was clean and ready for anything. Both said that their fighters trained hard and would win because of their hard work and preparation in training camp.
“No, for sure, it’s not going to go the distance…I don’t think it’s going to go more than three, and that’s no respect to Marquez. If Manny decides to go in and knock him out, I don’t see it going one,” thus said Alex Ariza’s bold predictions, but we all know now that did not happen as Juan Manuel Marquez took Manny Pacquiao into twelve hard-fought rounds to earn a ‘controversial’ majority decision.
For his part, Angel ‘Memo’ Heredia has stated, “There’s nothing to hide. The use of legal supplements – creatine, amino acids – has changed (Marquez). It makes me a little mad someone’s bringing my name up in a negative way.”
To people who follow boxing, we know that Alex Ariza and his team of nutritionists were the ones mostly credited for taking Manny Pacquiao’s body to the next level — going up in weight and fighting and routing bigger guys in the process. The ‘protein shake’ that Manny Pacquiao takes at least five times a day during intense training to maintain his weight and improve his stamina has been scrutinized in the past, but Ariza maintains that whatever ingredients he put into his concoction were all legal and woulf pass any tests.
Angel ‘Memo’ Heredia, who barged into the boxing world’s concsciousness for this fight initially tried to hide under the name of Angel Hernandez in an episode of HBO 24/7, but Victor Conte, founder of the notorious Bay Area Laboratory Co-operative (BALCO, once involved in various sports scandals involving high-profile athletes), exposed his dirty past via Twitter.
Angel ‘Memo’ Heredia had spent 11 weeks inside Juan Manuel Marquez’s training camp and is widely credited for the 38-year-old’s physical transformation for the fight with Pacquiao. Heredia is not just an ordinary trainer, as he is also very knowlegeable with his craft and has degrees from Texas A&M Kingsville and a school in Mexico as proof of his expertise. Heredia was implicated in a case involving the use of illegal performance-enhancing drugs (PEDs) by certain elite athletes, and was featured in a 2009 German documentary that showed how easy it was to obtain and use illegal performance-enhancing drugs. Heredia now claims that he is clean and that all the shenanigans that he was involved in are now things of the past.
But that was water under the bridge now, as Alex Ariza edged Angel ‘Memo’ Heredia for this particular fight. Alex Ariza’s ‘shake’ has overcome Angel ‘Memo’ Heredia’s magical knowledge, with Manny Pacquiao earning a majority decision against Juan Manuel Marquez with ‘cramps’ and all.