HAVING been on holiday visiting my parents in the Philippines for the past week, I’ve been denied my regular dose of football.

I missed Chelsea’s shock defeat to Sunderland; Manchester United’s thrilling comeback against Aston Villa; and most regrettably, my favourite result of the week, Manchester City’s 0-0 draw at home to Birmingham City.

I also missed out on the Malaysian national football team’s progress to the second round of the Asian Games, the first time we’ve achieved that since 1978. Huge props to our Tigers for scrapping through in spite of the crippling injury crisis they’ve been dealing with.

The thing is, Filipinos just aren’t that into football, or soccer, as they’re more likely to call it. It’s not easy to find a place where you can watch live matches here.

But as much as I’d love to have been back home watching all of the weekend’s action at a mamak, it didn’t feel that bad because I was too busy getting caught up with a sporting event that brought the entire country to a near standstill.

It was a boxing match that was fought in Texas, the United States, on Sunday, but everyone in the Philippines was tuned in for the World Super Welterweight Championship. Some even parked their cars by the roadside so they can listen in on the radio – because their champion boxer Manny “Pacman” Pacquiao, was fighting Mexican Antonio Margarito.

The streets in Baguio City where my parents live were eerily empty considering it was a Sunday afternoon, and as we rushed back from lunch to watch the fight, we could hear people screaming and cheering along the way as the big event started.

There were quite a few viewing parties too, just like some of the big football games back in Malaysia, but we decided to watch it at home instead just in case we couldn’t find seats at the screening venues.

According to the local news, people in some other cities had camped at screening venues the night before so they could get the best seats to watch the fight.

But the best part was this: the crime rate in the country almost dropped to zero when the fight was going on!

“As expected, based on our experience in similar situations when Manny Pacquiao fought abroad, again we experienced today another phenomenal minimal crime rate nationwide especially in Metro Manila where only one crime incident was reported during the day,” said Police Director General Raul Bacalzo, chief of the Philippine National Police, in a congratulatory statement to Pacquiao. Another police statement said that only one crime took place in the country while the fight was going on, a jewelry store hold-up by some thugs who presumably weren’t boxing fans.

Manny the champ

As you can see, Pacquiao is something of a hero in the Philippines. Basketball is still seen as the people’s favourite sport, and they are huge NBA fans, but Pacquiao is bigger than all that.

He is widely considered the pound-for-pound best boxer in the world, having won 10 world titles in eight different weight categories.

Margarito was about 7kg heavier, and 12cm taller, but Pacquiao made light work of his opponent with some fearsome combinations, winning by unanimous decision.

By the 11th round, Pacquiao could be seen asking the referee if he wanted to stop the fight, because Margarito had suffered some nasty-looking facial injuries – he had a huge gash below his right eye that caused it to swell up, and his left eye was badly bruised.

It was funny watching the delayed telecast in the Philippines, though, because there were so many advertisements between the rounds, and almost all of them featured Pacquiao. He sells everything from painkillers to anti-dandruff shampoo.

The delayed telecast was shown on two channels, and before the fight started, several other channels were showing previews and documentaries of Pacquiao. It was fun getting sucked in to the hype surrounding the fight.

It was just one of those do-as-the-Romans-do kind of things, and even though I’m not big on boxing, as a sports fan, I ended up enjoying the whole experience a lot.

But still, next Saturday it’s going to be back to the English Premier League for me back in Kuala Lumpur.

Manchester United vs Wigan isn’t quite Pacquiao vs Margarito, but with United, Chelsea and Manchester City all floundering last weekend, you’ll never know what could happen.