A travel advisory to Mayweather

MASTER BLASTER
Neil Bravo


The weatherman in Texas must have read a different forecast last Sunday.

I wondered. Where was the Tornado from Tijuana?

There was but a trickle of shower from the supposed Tijuana Tornado. Even if it developed into a full-blown force of nature, Manny Pacquiao would still have survived it. In fact, any person from the Philippines not named Manny Pacquiao would still have survived it.

Antonio Margarito, the Mexican hombre nicknamed Tijuana Tornado, did not stand up to his name on Sunday. He did not come to blow away Manny. At best, he was a mere gust of wind that came in sporadically. Intermittent. Not even enough to blow your hair dry.

It was a case of the twister becoming the twisted. A far cry from a Katrina.

I still wondered. Where was the Tornado from Tijuana?

In contrast, Manny Pacquiao went like thousands of thundering typhoons. Sweeping through Margarito’s landscape and blowing away his good looks. At the end of the fight, his face bore traces of a typhoon-battered barrio. Manny whipped a storm not even CNN weatherman Rob Marciano anticipated. Not even the most sophisticated of radars could track Manny’s blistering barrage.

This may be an overkill of an overmatched fight whose chapter had to be closed by now. Margarito had undergone surgery to repair a damaged orbital bone and to straighten up his nose. He can run again in 60 days. He is history as far as the chapter on Pacqquiao’s Butchered Mexican List.

Where does the Mexican go from here? I suspect his career may be over. He cannot fight in Nevada where boxing’s big cards are staged. Remember, only a Manny Pacquiao fights in Texas and makes it as exciting as Vegas. Margarito, mothballed for two years for illegal handwraps, does not have a license to fight in Vegas. Jerry Jones, WBC’s Man of the Year, is not utterly foolish to put up a card in Texas with Margarito fighting another man not named Manny Pacquiao.

But the future does not look bleak for Margarito. This is the good thing about fighting a Manny Pacquiao. Margarito can laugh all the way to the bank with a cool five million dollars in loot. Margarito has gone the way of a Joshua Clottey, Miguel Cotto and Ricky Hatton. They were never the same again after the fight with the Pacman. They can forget boxing and never to fight again. Their bank account is fat. Something they may never earn in several fights against boxers not named Manny Pacquiao.

In short, a fight with Manny Pacquiao is a retirement package every boxer can be wishing for. It’s a hard-to-resist lump sum package from your security system. It’s like winning the coveted lotto prize everyone in this country is crazy about.

I wondered no more. Where was the Tornado from Tijuana?

No reason to look for one. The force of nature may just be a freak of nature. Call him Tony the Tiny Trickle instead.

It did not come on Sunday. Perhaps the Tornado was so caught up with the travel advisory against the Philippines it stayed in Tijuana. I would advise the same thing to American Floyd Mayweather too. If he watched Manny Pacquiao destroy Margarito, he is better off heeding the travel advisory to face a man named Manny Pacquiao.

Somebody better tweet Mayweather now.

Here is a man from a country some nations forbid their citizens to travel to for threats of terrorism. Valid or not, this man has sowed terror where he fights. In Vegas. In Texas. Terror is in the eyes of a happy victim like Margarito. Not in the eyes of millions around the world who are awe-struck by a little man from a ‘feared’ land.

For the rest of the world, 36 minutes of Manny Pacquiao is worth travelling for and worth paying to watch for. No matter which part of the globe you are, you come to watch a man named Manny Pacquiao.

Travel advisory and all.

Tornado or none at all.

The weatherman from Texas could have reported wrongly the coming of a Tornado from Tijuana. Good thing is, he can keep his job.

In the Philippines, if you report a weather forecast erroneously, you are fired.