the reluctant pacquiao fan

don't hate me for admitting this, but i am not a fan of manny pacquiao.

i remember when he was first starting out, and people were beginning to notice him. sundays, the residents of our dorm would all be watching in the tv room while i was in bed, sleeping or otherwise pretending to study. and then there was this officemate, whom everyone got pissed at, cause she would send text messages about the fight's outcome even before it aired on free tv -- me, i couldn't care less about her text messages.

so pacman got bigger, and jinkee got richer, and i just got more and more indifferent about the entire thing. yes, i was proud of his accomplishments -- in fact, i love his song which goes "pilipino ang lahi ko" -- but you wouldn't catch me forking over five hundred bucks to watch his fights via satellite. i would watch the telecast over on free tv, but i wouldn't exactly sit still and watch twelve whole rounds of the thing.

of course the fact that he insisted on being a politician made me even less of a fan.

but then he won his 8th belt, against a goliath of a fighter whom i was sure would win against pacman. and he did it with such charm and grace (not that i watched, i know, but i admire him for not wanting to hurt margarito more than he needed to win the bout) that i couldn't help but agree with the entire universe that manny "pacman" pacquiao is the man.

so here i am, the filipino who so carelessly disregarded the fantabulousness that is manny, admitting, once and for all, that i was so wrong in not becoming a fan sooner.