YOU won Pacquiao's battle, Manny must win war

Go ahead and give yourself a round of applause. Go ahead and pat yourself on the back.

Now that Manny Pacquiao has signed off on a contract which provides that he and Miguel Cotto can weigh up to 145 pounds with Cotto’s WBO welterweight title on the line Nov. 14, it’s important to realize who made this happen and who didn’t.

Pacquaio didn’t make it happen. He was seemingly nonchalant about it and seemingly oblivious to his chance to make history by winning a world title in a seventh weight division.

Low marks to Pacman for his dizzy spell but high marks to the Pinoy Idol for hearing the deafening roar of the Pacquiao Worldwide Army (PWA).

Lawyer Franklin “The Jackal” Gacal didn’t make it happen. Neither did the double agent Michael Koncz, who swears allegiance to Pacman but whose real fealty is to promoter Bob Arum. These two were just swept along with the tide of current events and acted as though they are completely tone deaf to the Pacquiao fan base’s feverish desire for Pacquiao-Cotto to be for a recognized world title strap.

Arum didn’t make it happen, either, but like Megamanny he heard the roar of the crowd, the screaming of the paying customers who fork over the money at the live gate and for the fight telecast.

The difference between the Alphonse and Gaston act of Gacal and Koncz and Arum is, as I noted before, milked the raging controversy for everything it was worth. And it was worth plenty as it created a tsunami of preflight publicity before the MGM Grand tickets went on sale.

Drowned abjectly if not completely in the wake of this Cotto-Pacquiao tsunami has been the wobbling Sept. 19 Juan Manuel Marquez-Floyd Mayweather Jr. PPV bout.

The entire brouhaha was an udder delight for Milkman Bob who finally reached past the mothballs in his pocket to come up with the small change fee (about $340,000) required to get the fight fully sanctioned by Paco Valcarcel and the WBO.

I will take a small bow here myself but only a small one.

I used Examiner.com and Boxingconfidential as a conduit for the various elements of PWA to mobilize and mobilize you did, attacking having a non title bout between Miguel and Manny, from the land, the sea and the air.

Don’t think Arum didn’t pay attention to the 18,000 emails you bombed me with or the phone calls and emails that relentlessly poured into Top Rank’s as Vegas headquarters.

In Pacquiao’s hour of historic need, his adherents stood tall.

I wonder sometimes how deeply Pacquiao appreciates your love and support. Or does he now take it for granted?

No other fighter has such loyal backers.

You’ve done your job and done it admirably.

You delivered his historic chance on a silver platter.

Now the pressure is on Manny.

He needs to clock into training camp and then clock Cotto.

It would be appropriate for Pacman to dedicate his soldiers, the grunts of the PWA.

Any good general would do that.

His troops deserve no less.

Source: http://www.examiner.com/x-5699-NY-Boxing-Examiner~y2009m8d13-YOU-won-Pacquiaos-battle-Manny-must-win-war