Global search for Pacquiao Free Zone while picking Abraham, Guzman -- The Examiner

By Michael Marley, Examiner.com

COPENHAGEN—I will continue to roam this planet until I find a Manny Pacquiao Free Zone.

I am thinking if I take a yak ride up in the rarefied mountain air of Tibet or a camel ride through the mean streets of Outer Mongolia, I might find such a place.

As if all the chatter I heard about Megamanny in London for two days was not sufficient, I got a Pacman surprise at dinner Wednesday night in the tony Frederiksburg area.

Dining with some boxing guys, our waitress turned out yet another OFW, Overseas Foreign Worker, a lovely lady from Metro Manila now residing over the bridge in Malmo, Sweden. Her name is Evangeline “Eva” Levy and, yes, she is yet another Pinay for Pacquiao.

I'm thinking that Pacquiao's smashing success might have special significance for the OFWs given the fact that he, too, is kind of an OFW, who comes to America to earn his ring riches. Anyway, I've yet to visit a country where the PWA, Pacquiao Worldwide Army is not represented.

I may be on the other side of the pond now but I can't ignore important boxing activity at home this weekend so here's my capsule look at the key bouts:

That noted food critic Don King always said that to have a successful steak house, you had to provide customers with two things. One is a flavorful hunk of beef and the second is what he likes to call “comeback sauce,” meaning some element of the dining experience which along with the food draws patrons back like a boomerang.

Is it me, then, or is the Showtime Super Six 168 pound tournament lacking in both areas, in fistic flavor and in that special sauce?

Jermain Taylor is off the dance floor for medical reasons given his frightening KO at the hands of King Arthur Abraham.

The American hope in the tournament is Olympic gold medal getter Andre “Son of of Ward who somehow thrashed Danish hero and only a loser to Joe Calzaghe, Mikkel Kessler.

Unless Kessler finds his lost mojo for his April 24 bout, nearby here in Herning, against rugged but not exceptionally gifted Brit Carl Froch, there's big trouble in Hans Christian Anderson's hometown and that fairy tale could have an unhappy ending.

Allan Green has filled the Taylor vacancy but it would be a surprise if he wins up the ultimate winner of the competition. Let's see how he fares against the highly skilled Ward.

Abraham, the strongman from Armenia but fighting out of Germany, faces flick and run Andre Dirrell in Motown Saturday night.

In a metro area with something like 30 percent unemployment and street after street of empty and foreclosed or simply abandoned homes, you can imagine what a tough sell tickets for this show area especially given that it was moved to Detroit after a postponement at orginal site, Palm Springs.

I don't think balmy Springs loses many public or private events to battered D Town.

Having said, I hope they do attract sufficient warm bodies to the Joe Louis Arena. Although Dirrell is from Flint, he's never before been showcased, at least not professionally, in Detroit so a hometown ring magnet he is not.

Who wins? Chalk players will favor King Artie and I must as well. I think he will get the nod after 12 rounds of chasing mobile lefty Dirrell.

Dirrell's style is generally not one that the average fight judge or fan finds pleasing. He's got skills but they do not look to be the kind that really pay the bills.

Somehow, it strikes me as though Showtime will only be happy if the tournament experiment concludes with American Ward the big winner.

Changing cable channels, HBO offers up a real crossroads rematch with my old friend, Dominican Dandy Joan Guzman trying to square accounts with lanky South African Ali “Rush Hour” Funeka at the Hard Rock in Las Vegas.

Guzman retained his unbeaten record unfairly last Nov. 28 when he got mauled by Giraffe Funeka in Quebec but two myopic judges scored it 114-114. The third judge was right on at 116-112 for Funeka.

My sentimental if not mental pick here is Guzman even though he turns 34 on May 1.

Guzman's back really is against the wall this time out but don't forget that Funeka is no spring chicken, turning 32 on Sunday.

Logic dictates that Funeka will do better and Guzman worse as they start their 13th round against each other.

Guzman looks cut and ready for the quest under a Ricky Hatton Alumni team of trainer Lee Beard and nutritionist Kerry Kayes but...the wild card here is how much Guzman has had left in the competitive tank ever since his weigh in blunder which scotched a Nate Campbell lightweight title bout with Soupy putting three belts on the line.

But what good are old friends if you can't wish them well rather than wishing them hell?

Call my Guzman selection a loyalty test if you must but I shall stick to it. I certainly don't want to let mi presidente, Leonel Fernandez,. down.

He and I are very close having met once for three minutes in the Dominican Casa Blanca, you know.

So put me down as forecasting a Guzman UD 12 as he digs deep.

As far as logic goes, if I was logical I would not be spanning the globe seeking a MPFZ, would I?

With boxing on a roll with back to back crowds of 51,000, first for Pacman and Clottey in Dallas and last Saturday for Wladimir Klitschko-Eddie Chambers in Germany, I hope HBO and Showtime offer up excitement.

We're on a roll, let's try to keep it going.

Even Dana White is praising boxing.

Maybe he has Pacman Flu as well.

(mlcmarley@aol.com)

Source: examiner.com