I already know the answer, but I love this Photoshop template I made so I’m gonna go ahead and ask all you Filipinos:

But honestly, what sort of self-respecting Filipino are you if you aren’t at someone else’s house, mooching off their Pay Per View this Saturday?

Not much of one, really.

The phenomenon nearly transcends stereotyping.  Ask any Filipino about “The Fight.”  You don’t even need to specify the pugilists involved.  We just know what you’re referring to.

As far as we’re concerned, shit is like Highlander: there can be only one and at any given time, it’s gonna be the one with Pacquiao and his next victim.

Must blow for that dude.

I vaguely remember when this all started:

Years ago, in the car with my father, he would occasionally mention this up and coming boxer.  The big thing about this guy was that he was Filipino. Crazy!

Of course, as a nerd on the chubby side, sports was never something that held much of my interest, so I really didn’t care about whoever this “Pacquiao” guy was.

But I did always have an interest in underdogs.

Slowly, mentions of this man became more and more frequent and they weren’t just coming from my dad.

More of my family started talking about this talented fighter (we’re practically all Filipino) and then, before I knew it, Pac-Man was on the tip of every Filipino person’s tongue.

Before long, everything would stop when Manny stepped into the ring.  Of course, this is second-hand information, but people claim that back in the Homeland, even crime comes to a standstill when he’s duking it out.

Yes, the man has trained very hard to get to where he is and he is a supremely talented warrior.

And yeah, he’s the same race as I am.  But whatever and a bag of chips.

The reason I was finally drawn to him wasn’t any of those things.

Inundated so by all this information about him – interviews, documentaries, the press junkets they have before the fights – I saw that he was, hackneyed as this phrase has become, a man of character.

He’s been faced with criticisms, taunts, and doubts from all directions, but he’s always approached all of this with class and composure.  He doesn’t stoop down to the level of his detractors and just continues chugging, best foot forward at all times.  And lately, every one of his opponents has been a step up from the last, a new challenge to conquer.

These days are admittedly much different from those times when I first heard my father’s stories about Manny, when the outcome of these fights seemed up in the air to most.

These are the days when people change – when class and humility fall by the wayside, giving way to hubris and pride.

These days, the odds are for him, not against him.

It wasn’t always like that.  Once, he was an underdog.

But thankfully, everything else has stayed the same.