"A Day Which Will Live in Infamy"
December 7th 2008.
Majority of the Filipinos all over the Philippines had a very valid reason to stay at home rather than going out to enjoy Sunday-break. It was a big day. A very big day. After months of speculations, the greatest fight of the year in boxing - perhaps of the decade - took place at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas. The "Dream Match: De la Hoya-Pacquiao" attracted not just the attention of Filipino and Mexican fans but as well as Americans, the British, and the rest of the world. As a result, the pay-per-view sales of the match ranked 4th among the top sellers in boxing fight - the only non-heavyweight fight to do so in history.
As most of the boxing and sport aficionados were glued to their television sets on this day, I, together with my mother was not. We had to go to the nearby island of Jinamoc to attend mass as what we have promised saad. After which, we had to travel to Tacloban for some "important" business. For short we missed to see the fight on TV. I missed to see the fight, the dream fight. And this was the second time that I missed a Pacquiao fight since he stepped into superstardom in the boxing world. The first was his previous fight this year, if I am not mistaken - sometime in March of this year. I had to be at school for a practice for a play for my Rizal course.
Pacquiao won over the heavily favored Golden Boy. De la Hoya threw the white cloth after round eight. I heard of the match's result over the radio played on the van while I was bound to Tacloban. Never thought radio coverage was better than that of television coverage, except that you do not see the actual blow-by-blow of punches instead the exaggerated and unbalanced commentary of the radio correspondent. The bonuses you somehow get are the fast results due to less advertisements or marketing propaganda.
It was indeed a great fight. A fight which gave more shine to the Filipino race, to Pacquiao - the new Golden Boy. And De la Hoya became the Golden Boy with less luster.
The day was a day of celebration. A day of celebrating the Filipino excellence.
It was a day worth saying, "I love being a Filipino!!!”
***
The day seemed to have been a generally happy one. But, it wasn’t. Not for me in a way. I was surfing the net at about 4:30 in the afternoon, when suddenly I was shocked at a fresh update from GMAnews.tv with a headline on the passing away of Starstruck 3 Ultimate Survivor Marky Cielo. I was shocked. Not because I was a die hard fan, although I admit that I was a fan. I was shocked because of how young the actor was. I am sensitive to matters like this, I know how it feels what Marky's friends would have felt when they were told that he passed, bcause I also have lost a friend just months after our graduation from high school way back in 2004. It's just very depressing for me to know people dying young.
Majority of the Filipinos all over the Philippines had a very valid reason to stay at home rather than going out to enjoy Sunday-break. It was a big day. A very big day. After months of speculations, the greatest fight of the year in boxing - perhaps of the decade - took place at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas. The "Dream Match: De la Hoya-Pacquiao" attracted not just the attention of Filipino and Mexican fans but as well as Americans, the British, and the rest of the world. As a result, the pay-per-view sales of the match ranked 4th among the top sellers in boxing fight - the only non-heavyweight fight to do so in history.
As most of the boxing and sport aficionados were glued to their television sets on this day, I, together with my mother was not. We had to go to the nearby island of Jinamoc to attend mass as what we have promised saad. After which, we had to travel to Tacloban for some "important" business. For short we missed to see the fight on TV. I missed to see the fight, the dream fight. And this was the second time that I missed a Pacquiao fight since he stepped into superstardom in the boxing world. The first was his previous fight this year, if I am not mistaken - sometime in March of this year. I had to be at school for a practice for a play for my Rizal course.
Pacquiao won over the heavily favored Golden Boy. De la Hoya threw the white cloth after round eight. I heard of the match's result over the radio played on the van while I was bound to Tacloban. Never thought radio coverage was better than that of television coverage, except that you do not see the actual blow-by-blow of punches instead the exaggerated and unbalanced commentary of the radio correspondent. The bonuses you somehow get are the fast results due to less advertisements or marketing propaganda.
It was indeed a great fight. A fight which gave more shine to the Filipino race, to Pacquiao - the new Golden Boy. And De la Hoya became the Golden Boy with less luster.
The day was a day of celebration. A day of celebrating the Filipino excellence.
It was a day worth saying, "I love being a Filipino!!!”
***
The day seemed to have been a generally happy one. But, it wasn’t. Not for me in a way. I was surfing the net at about 4:30 in the afternoon, when suddenly I was shocked at a fresh update from GMAnews.tv with a headline on the passing away of Starstruck 3 Ultimate Survivor Marky Cielo. I was shocked. Not because I was a die hard fan, although I admit that I was a fan. I was shocked because of how young the actor was. I am sensitive to matters like this, I know how it feels what Marky's friends would have felt when they were told that he passed, bcause I also have lost a friend just months after our graduation from high school way back in 2004. It's just very depressing for me to know people dying young.
So much for this. The atmosphere is getting lonely. May Marky rest in peace.
***
Just like what then US President Franklin Delano Roosevelt said 67 years ago after the Pearl Harbor attack this same day in 1941, December 7th 2008 "is a day which will live in infamy".
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