Manny Pacquiao; hero of the Phillipines, but for how long?

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The megafight between Floyd Mayweather, Jr. and Manny Pacquiao has gone through a lot of ups and downs, with there being a lot of money on the table, almost too much, and both men's pride on the line. When Mayweather asked Manny to submit to more rigid drug testing was when things fell completely apart. Is it a matter of pride for Manny Pacquiao, who believes submitting to such drug tests an insult, or is he dodging being marked as a cheater and all of his career accomplishments ignored? Tommy Hackett looks at some of Manny's motivations, and why in the end we can still only blame Manny for this megafight not happening.

In fact, according to media reports like this one from Robbie Panglinan, Pacquiao was estranged from his father throughout his career. Rosalio Pacquiao in fact attended one of his son’s fights for the first time last year. He cannot claim credit a similar credit for Manny’s development — and neither can the world of amatuer and Olympic boxing. Its tight reign on a fighter’s weight management, its strict drug testing, and its sometimes puzzling scoring are all probably as foreign to Pacquiao as they are to many of his fans, who are reacting with horror to Mayweather’s demand, admittedly unprecedented, for Olympic style drug testing in a pro bout.

But I see it differently. It’s the right thing to do.

Perhaps its unfair to expect Pacquiao to step out of his comfort zone, shed a tablespoon of blood, and take the tests as Mayweather demands — giving boxing fans what we want. But life isn’t always fair, and that shouldn’t keep you from doing the right thing. It’s hard to imagine, given his upbringings, that Manny Pacquiao hasn’t already learned that.

Peter Aerts will compete in his 17th K-1 World Grand Prix this year, and with recent talks of retirement from fighters like Musashi and Aerts being 42 years old, there is speculation, of course, as to if this will be his last World Grand Prix or not.

Aerts recently had a sit down with the K-1 crew to discuss this, as well as his family's support for his decision to continue fighting in K-1 competition. Aerts is hard on some of his performances in the past few years, but says he has been training harder than ever. Peter loves his family and of course the art of fighting, and will continue competing at the highest level possible before he considers retiring.

The K-1 main page has a story up claiming Ghita's time for the tournament last week was a dazzling 5:15 from beginning to end, with Ghita stopping all of his opponents in stunning domination. This breaks the previous record held by Peter Aerts in 1998 of 6:43 for the World GP.

The level of competition was surely different then than now, and if Manhoef would have moved on who knows what the outcome would have been, but for now Ghita has made K-1 history. It would probably be a good setup for Aerts/Ghita for a later stage in the 2009 World Grand Prix. Hopefully you caught this show on HDNet over the weekend, as it doesn't look to be replaying again this month. On the plus side, the Asia GP will be airing this weekend and we'll get some more K-1 MAX before the next MAX show in October (which is still without a card, sadly). News on the K-1 front has been slow of late, but keep checking and we'll have news as it comes.

Peter Aerts is one of the true legends of K-1 and kickboxing in general. The 38 year old kickboxer has an astonishing 122 professional kickboxing fights to his credit and shows little signs of slowing down. For the past few years there have been talks of Aerts scaling back his appearances inside of the K-1 ring, but Aerts was a finalist in both the 2006 and 2007 WGPs. Last year Badr Hari crushed Aerts in the second round in December before moving on to be disqualified against the Flying Dutchman, Remy Bonjasky.

It is safe to say that in the past few years Peter Aerts has slowed down a bit, with his deadly high kick not finishing a fighter off since late 2007. Before talk of Cro Cop's deadly high kicks were in full spin mode, there was Peter Aerts:

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What is there to say about Melvin Manhoef? He is nicknamed "No Mercy" and for a very important reason; Melvin is a mass murder machine inside of the ring. To step in front of Melvin is to step in front of 198 pounds of raw fury and aggression. Melvin not only competes in kickboxing, but Mixed Martial Arts as well, fighting in FEG (K-1's parent company)'s very own DREAM. Melvin is known for having very heavy hands and an incredible style that always entertains. Melvin comes into his fight on 8/11 against the Russian Muay Thai sensation Ramazan Ramazanov.

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