IF this were a boxing fight, Manny Pacquiao may need to win the final round, or just to be sure, score a knockout to register a victory.
On the eve of the May 12 midterm elections, the world's only eight-division boxing champion is on the ropes, his election chances hanging by a thread as survey after survey show that he will need a comeback of heroic proportions if he hopes to return to the Senate.
READ What sportsmen-candidates are up against in May elections
Pacquiao's numbers have been uninspiring and lukewarm before the campaign period started and have hardly improved as all the major surveys see him trailing the pacesetters by a wide margin.
Unfortunately for him, this election is unlike the Hall of Fame selection where he is a guaranteed entry in the first balloting. Currently, he is struggling to make it to the Magic 12 and with election set in the next few hours, he needs a substantial amount of voters to recall the good things he has done for boxing and the country and vote for him again.
They just don't have to remember that in his last stint at the Senate, he was among the top non-performers who was known to be a chronic absentee, with no important bills passed, and hardly a significant factor in debates.
The latest SWS (Social Weather Station) survey taken from May 2 to 6 placed Pacquiao in a tie for 13th to 15th places with television host Willie Revillame and former interior secretary Benhur Abalos with a 24 percent voter preference.
In another survey, this time by the Pulse of Asia last April, Pacquiao was ranked in a tie for the 9th to 14th places with a 28.3% voter preference. He didn't do any better in Octa Research's final survey, which put him in the 10th to 20th range with 28% voter preference.
But don't count the Pacman out.
But if there's anything we should remember is that Pacquiao is not a guy who easily gives up. Over the final two weeks of the campaign period, the boxing icon, considered one of the richest Filipinos and who ran and lost for president in 2022, has gone on a major offensive to regain his Senate seat, which he first achieved by placing 7th in the 2016 race.
In April, Pacquiao, an independent running under the administration Alyansa coalition and a longtime ally of former President Rodrigo Duterte, courted the votes of liberals by getting the endorsement of former Vice President Leny Robredo.
Three days before the elections, Pacquiao's camp released his B.O.B.O (Boksingerong Obsessed na Bigyan ng Oportunidad ang mahihirap) video on social media outlining all the programs he has undertaken for the country's poor.
WATCH:
He also made the news lately when it was leaked that, win or lose in the Senate race, he's set to make a comeback fight at age 46 on July 19 against WBC welterweight champion Mario Barrios.
So what does this tell you?
Put simply, Pacquiao isn't going down without a fight.
LOOK: Pacquiao visits ailing former trainer Jonathan Penalosa
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