Pacquiao's butterfly effect

I found myself in a crowd of a thousand shouting at the top of my lungs to a person I see only through an LCD projector.

Weird. I initially thought.

It suddenly struck me at the end of the game.

I don't really know what the hell I was doing there. I could have just spent that Sunday alone in my room and wait for the results to come out in Twitter.

You can never go wrong with what cyberspace feed (Or so, I thought).

I couldn't consider it the Fight of the Year.

But I should admit that I am guilty of not betting for Manny Pacquiao to win this fight.

Yes. I have my reason.

Joshua Clottey is an African, roots came from Ghana. And we know how these people fight. I am not trying to be a racist here. But really, Clottey has all the advantages he could get.

The height. The reach. The weight. The muscles.

All about him was really an advantage.

But everything changed before the game started.

Since the coliseum was closed to minimize the crowd's growing number, I thought of smoking inside instead. I found myself smoking with a 50-ish man.

Out of nowhere, he asked me, "Sino tingin mo mananalo bata?"

"Hindi ko po alam e," I answered. "Pero nagdadalawang isip ako kung mananalo si Pacquiao e. Ikaw po?"

"Ako Pacquiao siyempre. Manalo. Matalo. Sa Pilipinas ako."

I was suddenly speechless.

It felt like a piano was suddenly drop over my head.

I just smiled.

I realized,Filipinos still have that burning pride to be a Filipino. We still hang on to the fact that we are still capable of change.

And I believe you my fellowmen.

To manong, thank you for that remark. It changed my perspective. It changed me.