by alex
Vince and I split up today to film the Pacquiao vs Clottey match in two different locations. I went to watch it in a covered basketball court with a thousand or so others in Taytay (1hr east of Cubao), Vince went to see it in a classy Quezon City bar. We figured the contrast would be interesting.
All the photos in this blog entry were taken during the undercard...
The one constant is the love of the Filipinos for Manny Pacquiao. He’s the one thing everyone agrees on. Crime apparently stops. Wars apparently stop. Everyone loves the Pacman.
I watched the fight for free in a covered outdoor basketball court in Taytay, an hour east of Cubao. It was a mixed neighbourhood of middleclass, lowerclass, and urban poor. There were two lcd tvs, a projector, and special rooms with tvs for the VIPs (local politicians and organizers).
There have been rolling blackouts (called ‘brownouts’ here for some reason) throughout the Philippines–but they’ve guaranteed power for the day of the fight (on Luzon at least). I’ve heard people ask how they can do this if the power supply really is in crisis, activists point to this as being very suspect.
Despite the consensus over Pacquiao, there is an undercurrent of politics to everything in the Philippines.
But back to the fight. It was interesting to be there… but the fight itself was kinda boring IMO. It’s not Manny’s fault, he came to fight, but what happened to Clottey?!? I didn’t expect this at all.
The crowd was pretty quiet compared to his other matches I’m told. Many at the end felt a bit cheated… everyone wanted a knockout. Damn, I wanted a knockout too.
But he won. Now let’s see what Mayweather can do against Mosley in May.
Bring on the megafight already!!!
BTW you’ll see the vid at Kultura… but in the meantime I hope you like the pics…
This event was free... if you don't count all the election posters for the sponsors of the event!
There was a sari-sari store in the court of course...
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Hey guys!
We were holding down the fort in the Canada equivalent — Shoeless Joe in Parkdale! Almost as many pinoys!!!