Talking Pacquiao at FireQuinito

The great mind behind FireQuinito saw fit to ask my opinion about the upcoming Manny Pacquiao/Antonio Margarito fight, which is now only a week away. What do I have to contribute to a discussion of boxing, when all I really know is hoops? Perhaps not much, but boxing has pulled into sole second place among my favorite sports, and my interest in the sport really ramped up when I watched Pacquiao/Morales I just a few months before I left for Manila in 2005. Pacquiao certainly had a large role in turning me into a fight fan, but the bigger assist probably belongs to Philippine television, which allowed me to watch all the great HBO, Showtime and PPV fights for free, as long as you consider sitting through ten minutes of Alaxan, Red Horse and Burlington sock commercials between each round free. 
Here is a picture of me splitting wood in upstate New York. I'm no Margarito.

Also, I've long been fascinated by Pacquiao and the Pacquiao phenomenon, and the opinion piece I wrote begging him not to run for Congress ran in Slate about a year ago and was selected as an honorable mention in the Best American Sports Writing 2010 anthology. I promise to upload photographic evidence of this soon.

My proudest moment in the FireQuinito exchange, aside from seeing my old Hayden Joe gag resurrected and being called an "Internet Heartthrob," is a fairly successful elaboration of an analogy Pacquiao's strength and conditioning trainer, Alex Ariza, made during episode two of HBO's 24/7. He said that the distractions in Pacquiao's camp reminded him of Rocky Balboa's interrupted training before his loss to Clubber Lang in Rocky III. I took some liberties and played out the thread.

Also, two wonderful interviews in Uno Magazine and the Philippine edition of Men's Health.