From the Sports Pages

I'm a fight fan so, out of curiosity, I read the NYT's piece on the Pacquiao-Clottey fight. I certainly was not expecting any political / philosophical issues to come up. And yet, in the midst of the article I came upon the following line:

The fight had a surreal premise: an African and a Filipino fighting in Texas, the birthplace of Top Rank Boxing and, fittingly, the Cowboys’ owner, Jerry Jones.
Relentless From Start, Pacquiao Retains Title

What is surreal about the fight being held in Texas: unless you think that all Texans are racists and xenophobes; or for some reason you think that Texans never heard of boxing?

What is wrong with the writers and editors at this newspaper? For your information, in case you're not a boxing fan, Filipinos have produced numerous quality fighters over the past century. There haven't been as many Africans in the fight game but African fighters are not an unusual breed; and Texas has produced great boxers including Jack Johnson and George Foreman among others. There was nothing at all surreal about this match except in the minds of the writer and his editors.