Onra: June 14th, 2012

Hafa Adai,
Congratulations to Robert Maloney for Gold and Mike Carbullido for Bronze for the medals and achievement at the Brazilian Jiujitsu World Championships in California . It’s good to see that , even as former residents, our islanders are arriving in increasing numbers and from every angle to reiterate Guam’s commitment to Competitive Jiujitsu.
Already near the top tiers of Strikeforces lightweight division –Good Luck to Joe Duarte who will be facing Ryan Cotoure on July 14th in Strikeforce: Rockhold vs. Kennedy, at the Rose Center in Portland, Oregon
Spike22’s Robert Washington fights Richard Clementi in the main event of the Rogue Warrior Championships fight card to take place at the Cannery Casino in Las Vegas on June 16.
Grapplers stay ready—the CopaDe Marianas Adults no-gi grappling tournament is locked in for June 30th at the Phoenix Center.
It’s a bit far stretched to call boxing a martial art but none can argue that it truly is fighting sport. What might look to some like a face punching challenge—extended observation can easily reveal that boxing truly is “a sweet science”. In the unofficial race between the increasing popularization of MMA and boxing’s dwindling fan base– Professional boxing took a big hit below the belt with Manny Pacquiao’s extremely controversial loss to Timothy Bradley last weekend.
Hordes of Pacquiao (and Bradley) fans around the world are publicly disgusted in a judges decision that has been popularly marked as “the most disgusting call in the history of Professional Boxing.”
In between the lines of all theTweets, Status Updates, instagram photos, and celebrity blurbs condemning the Nevada State Athletics Commision ruling the bout in favor of Manley —the controversial call has also been considered “another great day for the UFC”.
There have been a number of highly publicized inconsistencies between boxers and boxing-industry players and their respective mixed martial arts counterparts. And anxieties continue among promoters in the industries as the UFC viewership grows destined to (if not already ) surpass that of boxing.
Boxing vs. MMA years ago took center stage as James Toney challenged MMA icon Randy Cotoure—though both were often cited as being past their prime…Cotoure easily and quickly dismantled a highly self-promoted James Toney in a bout that opened the eyes of boxing fans around the world to the obvious fact that MMA competitors are dangerous and are to be taken seriously.
For the highly uninformed, part-time boxing fans—it seems that Boxing’s attraction has been highly anchored down by two bigger names.–Floyd Mayweather and Manny Pacquiao. On one hand you have a guy who has desecrated the sport of boxing in a lot of his self-promoting antics and questionable conduct on the other you have one that has been desecrated by the sport of boxing in last weeks decision loss than has also been considered a ploy to produce larger ticket sales and pay-per views for a rematch set in November.
Though many people felt that Pac-Man could’ve fought a much better fight—hard evidence tells the tale that there was no way that Timothy Bradley won that fight.
Is it more upsetting that a decision was fixed or is it more upsetting that a legend has been dethroned?
As much as we might believe in the increasing level of fighters, theres a part of all of us that would like there to be an absolutely unbeatable champion. It provides us with stability, with confidence, and keeps us in pure awe of skill and talent. Especially if its someone we can identify with—we’d love to believe that there is a way to become an irresistible force and/or an immovable object. There’s apart in many of us wants to believe in hidden training secrets that can put us above the rest. Unfortunately the reality is that there isn’t.
Talent, genetics, preparation—these are all extremely important ingredients for a Recipe of success but just like a man cant make fried rice without rice—these ingredients only take shape when bundled with desire.
There is an old poster about a hummingbird I can recall reading some20years ago. It said something along the lines of ”According to science, a hummingbird’s wings do not have the shape and capacity to send the weight of a hummingbird into flight—but the Hummingbird doesn’t know this so he goes ahead and flies anyway.” That’s some remarkable stuff and though im not sure if its accurate—its certainly good to hear because it gives us hope that no matter how the odds might be against us…where there’s a will there most certainly is a way and in that we are all at some point capable of defying all odds to even defy mathematics itself—to become champions.
In total respect for the millions of viewers around the world that felt Pacquiao won that fight—We still gotta give Bradley some props for some good boxing and for fighting a fight convincing enough to, in some eyes(even if just 2 or 3), dethrone an absolute beast of a competitor.
Along with that, even more respect for Pacquiao for being so gracious in this very questionable defeat. Hopefully that act in itself will help bridge the gap from boxing to its millions of fans who are at this time ashamed for the violation of the integrity of a sport that they might have held so valuable.
You win some, you lose some; People make mistakes and Flagrant calls happen—unfortunately, in front of a watching world, it happened to what seems like a real prize of a Champion. For Manny Pacquiao–No love lost, none whatsoever—Long live fight sport and good job PacMan.
Thanks for dropping by.