While the anticipation and thunderous cheers built up and reverberated in Las Vegas for the comeback bout of beloved boxing icon Manny “Pacman” Pacquiao (@mannypacquiao) against Las Vegas-native Jessie Vargas (@Jessie_vargasJV), the rest of the world went to Twitter to express their excitement and to show strong support for their player. In fact, fans sent over 280,000 Tweets during the #PacquiaoVargas fight (11am-3pm, 6 November 2016, Manila time).
“Despite his previously announced retirement, we see that the fandom around Manny Pacquiao’s boxing prowess never wavered, and we are always glad to be of service in empowering Filipinos to express their passion and Pinoy Pride for the sport and their idol,” said Pratiksha Rao, Head of Media Partnerships, Twitter Southeast Asia.
The Filipino voice was heard loud and clear on Twitter. One of the most shared Tweets came from the People’s Champ Manny Pacquiao who expressed his gratitude to fans and supporters on Twitter following his win. Other wildly popular Filipino Tweets were a mixture of humour and pride for their national hero:
Embedabble Tweet: https://twitter.com/mannypacquiao/status/795138041736138753
Embeddable Tweet: https://twitter.com/jobenkemakolam/status/795123915488051200
Embeddable Tweet: https://twitter.com/HugotDre/status/795127978778726400
Embeddable Tweet: https://twitter.com/PinoyQuotes/status/795131615898832896
Even before the match, fans posted their excitement leading to the awaited comeback event, expressing their excitement on whether the 37-year old Pacquiao will be able to snatch the WBO Welterweight Championship belt against the much younger 27-year old Vargas.
Embeddable Tweet: https://twitter.com/ofchibabe/status/795108744270999552
Embeddable Tweet: https://twitter.com/victoronefc/status/793978105891143680
And as soon as the fight started, fans tuned in and shared their thoughts on Twitter, even posting notable moments of the fight like the second round knockdown of the former belt holder Vargas after a stunning left hook by the People’s Champ.
Embeddable Tweet: https://twitter.com/H45SAN786/status/795120186122706944
And after twelve rounds, Pacquiao was named the new WBO Welterweight Champion of the world. And fans went wild on Twitter to celebrate this win.
Embeddable Tweet: https://twitter.com/patrickstaryow/status/795133359517102080
Well known personalities also shared their thoughts and reaction over the #PacquiaoVargas fight.
Embeddable Tweet: https://twitter.com/ChristineBBabao/status/795136636518473729
Embedabble Tweet: https://twitter.com/MissUniverse/status/795051414028517377