Mind Conditioning

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Last January 2019, I rushed to watch the fight of Manny Pacquiao and Adrien Broner (the hood) in the house of one of my parishioners. As always, Manny dedicated the fight to his fellow Kababayans (Filipinos). It is now a truism that when Manny fights, criminality stops in the Philippines, Indeed, Manny did not disappoint his fans. Humble, Manny did not react to the diatribe and rantings of his opponent during the media hype. During the fight, I could see different reactions of people: an old lady was praying the rosary, a guy behind me was punching his seatmate, and everyone was yelling when Manny scored a punch and agonizing with him when he was hit. I remember when Manny was training for the De La Hoya fight in 2008, he allowed his conditioning coach to hit him with a round stick. Pacquiao explained the significance of such training as mind conditioning. He said somehow the mind has to be conditioned to the pain. He explained that often a fighter could lose the game plan of the fight, if he suddenly gets hurt during the scuffles. The Gospel of St. Luke talks about Jesus, who embraced the cross which symbolizes pain, hurts and suffering. Christians should be mentally conditioned to embrace the stick to win eternal reward. Today’s generation is a “softie generation” which does not appreciate the cross as the means to salvation. When a boxer, who is hurt, hangs his gloves, he can never become a world champion like Manny Pacquiao. I understand why many Filipinos draw a lot of inspiration from the eight division world champion. They too are being battered by calamities, disasters and poverty. After being knockdown, they get up and push the fight ahead. Photo credit: Pixabay