After TIME cover story: Pacman hot pick for SI top award

LAS VEGAS – Manny Pacquiao, who just recently landed on the cover of TIME Magazine, is now a hot candidate for the Sports Illustrated’s Sportsman of the Year award.

The mother of all sports magazines will announce its choice for the 2009 award on Dec. 1 and it shouldn’t come a surprise if Pacquiao, now regarded as the face of boxing, nails it.

He’s been through tough fights and has beaten the toughest opponents, and for this month he landed on the cover of TIME Magazine, becoming only the first Filipino to do so after the late ex-president and icon of democracy, Corazon C. Aquino.

The November edition has turned out to be a best-seller, and this early, there were orders of a reprint of 50,000 copies.

In the SI’s November issue, there’s a six-page feature on Freddie Roach, the trainer, and Pacquiao, the boxer. And Chris Mannix of SI had just placed the name of Pacquiao in the box of nominees.

“If Manny Pacquiao didn’t win a single fight in 2009, he would still be a viable candidate for SI’s Sportsman of the Year. If Pacquiao had not put down once-beaten Ricky Hatton in a stunning second-round knockout last May, he would undoubtedly warrant consideration. If Pacquiao hadn’t cemented his status as the world’s No. 1 pound-for-pound fighter this year, I would still be touting his candidacy,” Mannix wrote.

“Why? Because Sportsman, by my definition, is about more than just a superior performance. It’s about contributions, to both sports and the world. And in that regard, Pacquiao has no peers. A commonly used cliché in sports journalism is that Pacquiao “fights with the weight of the world on his shoulders.” A little hyperbolic, certainly, but in Pacquiao’s case, it rings true. In the Philippines, Pacquiao borders on deity.

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“He’s an athlete and a rock star, an actor and a politician. He’s Derek Jeter, Jon Bon Jovi, John Travolta and John F. Kennedy rolled into one. His popularity stems from his athletic accomplishments; the Filipino army, in which Pacquiao is a reserve, routinely declares a temporary truce (P-Day, they call it) with insurgents on days Pacquiao fights. But Pacquiao’s impact extends even deeper into the culture,” he added.

Words are not really enough to describe Pacquiao, and his great accomplishments on and off the ring.

But in this case, they may be enough to land him as the top choice for 2009, regardless of what happens this coming Saturday at the MGM.