By Paul Magno, Yahoo! Contributor Network Oct 26, 3:48 am EDT
It's no secret that the drama surrounding the Manny Pacquiao-Floyd Mayweather controversy has Pacquiao cast in the role of hero with Mayweather playing the reprehensible bad guy.
HBO plays up this angle with great gusto and extreme precision. Pacquiao is the humble super hero with a shy smile and a warrior's heart. "Money" Mayweather is the new jack villain as flamboyant as he is arrogant. The underlying tone in all of this hyperbole is that "Money" is prime for a comeuppance and lovable, humble Manny is just the guy to give it to him.
To be fair, both fighters play off this image and have reaped the benefits of this typecasting. The world loves heroes and villains— and boxing, above all sports, loves to exploit these bad vs. good showdowns. But HBO, the broadcasting home for both Pacquiao and Mayweather, has worked extra long and hard to generate hero worship for Manny and heat for Floyd.
One could point to many different instances throughout the last several years where they flagrantly pushed the "Manny-Good, Floyd-Bad" editorial take, but none of those examples were as flagrant as what aired during the first installment of the Pacquiao-Marquez III 24/7 series last Saturday night.
As part of the documentary, Pacquiao was shown attending the Bernard Hopkins-Chad Dawson event in support of his sparring partner and gym mate, Jorge Linares, who was on the undercard taking on Antonio DeMarco for the vacant WBC lightweight title. As Manny was entering the Staples Center, the television crew captured a chant of "Manny! Manny!" while the fighter was about to make his way to ringside. The chant went along with the general tone of the segment— Manny is popular and beloved wherever he goes.
What HBO failed to include in their program, though, was the crowd reaction from the fans inside the arena. Those who watched the event on TV or attended it live know what really happened as the crowd got its first glimpse of the Filipino legend.
Pacquiao was greeted with a chorus of boos with a few cheers sprinkled in. The reaction was actually jarring in contrast to the HBO announce crew's usual cheerleading and promotion of Pacquiao as something between Sugar Ray Robinson and St. Thomas Aquinas.
At this point, the question isn't why the fans jeered Manny, but, rather, why HBO decided to treat the reaction as though it had never happened.
It's understandable how the network would feel the need to show a cash cow draw in the best light possible on a show promoting an upcoming pay-per-view, but Mayweather has never been treated with such kid gloves.
Isn't it enough for fans to just have good fights without someone, somewhere trying to invent angles and push agendas? And if the manipulation is just a network tool and part of the game, who gets to decide who wears the white hat and who dons the robber mask?
When fans dig into both fighters' pasts they find two flawed human beings who could've been labeled as both hero and villain at various points of their lives. From family dramas to nefarious associations to questionable personal decisions— Manny and Floyd have made some real mistakes in life, but have also displayed some endearing character traits.
But if you only went by the story HBO tells, you'd only know: "Manny-Good, Floyd-Bad."
http://sports.yahoo.com/box/news;_ylt=Ar3P2_sRKnhR7BHEK0CdqTiUxLYF?slug=ycn-10292457
It's no secret that the drama surrounding the Manny Pacquiao-Floyd Mayweather controversy has Pacquiao cast in the role of hero with Mayweather playing the reprehensible bad guy.
HBO plays up this angle with great gusto and extreme precision. Pacquiao is the humble super hero with a shy smile and a warrior's heart. "Money" Mayweather is the new jack villain as flamboyant as he is arrogant. The underlying tone in all of this hyperbole is that "Money" is prime for a comeuppance and lovable, humble Manny is just the guy to give it to him.
To be fair, both fighters play off this image and have reaped the benefits of this typecasting. The world loves heroes and villains— and boxing, above all sports, loves to exploit these bad vs. good showdowns. But HBO, the broadcasting home for both Pacquiao and Mayweather, has worked extra long and hard to generate hero worship for Manny and heat for Floyd.
One could point to many different instances throughout the last several years where they flagrantly pushed the "Manny-Good, Floyd-Bad" editorial take, but none of those examples were as flagrant as what aired during the first installment of the Pacquiao-Marquez III 24/7 series last Saturday night.
As part of the documentary, Pacquiao was shown attending the Bernard Hopkins-Chad Dawson event in support of his sparring partner and gym mate, Jorge Linares, who was on the undercard taking on Antonio DeMarco for the vacant WBC lightweight title. As Manny was entering the Staples Center, the television crew captured a chant of "Manny! Manny!" while the fighter was about to make his way to ringside. The chant went along with the general tone of the segment— Manny is popular and beloved wherever he goes.
What HBO failed to include in their program, though, was the crowd reaction from the fans inside the arena. Those who watched the event on TV or attended it live know what really happened as the crowd got its first glimpse of the Filipino legend.
Pacquiao was greeted with a chorus of boos with a few cheers sprinkled in. The reaction was actually jarring in contrast to the HBO announce crew's usual cheerleading and promotion of Pacquiao as something between Sugar Ray Robinson and St. Thomas Aquinas.
At this point, the question isn't why the fans jeered Manny, but, rather, why HBO decided to treat the reaction as though it had never happened.
It's understandable how the network would feel the need to show a cash cow draw in the best light possible on a show promoting an upcoming pay-per-view, but Mayweather has never been treated with such kid gloves.
Isn't it enough for fans to just have good fights without someone, somewhere trying to invent angles and push agendas? And if the manipulation is just a network tool and part of the game, who gets to decide who wears the white hat and who dons the robber mask?
When fans dig into both fighters' pasts they find two flawed human beings who could've been labeled as both hero and villain at various points of their lives. From family dramas to nefarious associations to questionable personal decisions— Manny and Floyd have made some real mistakes in life, but have also displayed some endearing character traits.
But if you only went by the story HBO tells, you'd only know: "Manny-Good, Floyd-Bad."
http://sports.yahoo.com/box/news;_ylt=Ar3P2_sRKnhR7BHEK0CdqTiUxLYF?slug=ycn-10292457