OFFBEAT MAIL

Filipino boxing champ Manny "Pacman" Pacquiao. After Filipino boxing champ Manny  "Pacman" Pacquiao beat up Mexican-American Brandon Rios to win the IBF welterweight belt in Macau on November 22, 2013, he felt ecstatic to be back home owing to a warm welcome accorded to him and his team by the people of General Santos City, Mindanao for bringing another prestige to the Philippines. Obliviously, Pacman never knew that another legal battle was looming in the horizon. This after the Philippines' Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) came out with a Notice of Garnishment that led to the freezing of his bank accounts in Metro Manila for his failure to pay his taxes for the years 2008 and 2009. Why is this so? According to BIR chief Kim Henares, Pacquiao failed to settle his tax problems amounting to some P2.2 billion for the years 2008 and 2009, despite the two-year grace period given to him by the tax bureau. But Pacquiao said in an interview that his lawyers ...

 My guess was right. And there are reports that former WBO welterweight champ Manny Pacquiao and Tim Bradley Jr. will slug it out once more comes November this year. However, there's no specific place and date of the rematch yet. But at least, many boxing analysts and writers are already putting their reassurance that the rematch will finally resolve the controversy. This early, millions of Filipino boxing fans are clamoring for the fight to be held in Manila. I don't have any hint as to why they wanted it to be held in the Philippines? Of course, Pacquiao will feel at home to fight in his home turf with Bradley. But wherever it may be held doesn't matter at all. What is important is for the promoters to approve of the fight. It is given that whenever Pacquiao fights in Las Vegas, the Sin City and gambling capital of the world generates millions of revenues for its coffer.   And even the mayor of Las Vegas had expressed gratitude every time Pacquiao comes to f...

Pacman loses WBO belt to Bradley. The night the Pacman was robbed of his clear victory portrayed a game of sports that is beginning to be fraught with a lot of suspicions from millions of boxing fans around the world. In fact, they have expressed great frustration over the decision of the two judges to award the WBO championship belt to Tim Bradley Jr., who lagged far behind in so far as the round-by-round scoring was concerned. Yet, the two judges didn't hesitate to steal the night away with Bradley winning the boxing fight to the dismay of those who watched the fight at MGM and on the boob tubes. After it happened, media sports analysts have been saying a mixture of comments that tend to suspect something must be happening outside of the ring that even boxing promoters are not aware of. There are some hints that the fight was fixed so that a rematch could follow the soonest possible time. There are speculations that the myriads of spectators that showed up at MGM, not to...

There we go again. Boxing fans are expected to witness the same old faces at the international boxing arena. Philippines' popular boxer Manny Pacquiao and Mexico's Marco Antonio Barrera are again pitted against each other on Oct. 6 in Las Vegas for a rematch, which many boxing observers considered as a money-making venture by promoters who always hungry for cash. How many times have they fought, with Barrera always going to the canvass? A lot of boxing fans knew first hand that the rematch is surely on the side of Pacquiao , who may have studied the boxing style of Barrera. Unless Barrera's trainers have something new to prove and outwit the lightning punches of Pacquiao , whom even Floyd Mayweather is thrilled to see the Filipino fight his opponent up in the ring. But it seemed Barrera's strategies are not new anymore to Pacquiao , who ran for a congressional seat in his hometown but eventually lost a scion of a political dynasty whose roots are deep in Mindanao pol...