Today, the day of the Manny Pacquiao-Joshua Clottey welterweight title bout, I’m remembering what happened yesterday.
A couple thousand people turned out to see Pacquiao, in his undergarments, step on a scale. Yes, other fighters were also weighed in for tonight’s fight card at Cowboys Stadium. But the crowd that turned out was almost universally drawn to the event by the chance to catch six minutes of Manny Pacquiao. There were about 2,000 fans standing in the shadow of the Death Star, their backs to the setting Texas sun.
I make that estimation of 2,000 not because I’m particularly skilled at gauging human masses. But after spending 6 ½ days observing how fans respond to Pacquiao’s mere physical presence, I know that a certain number of people will change their lives for a day just to watch him do anything – be it play dominoes, do the Twist or raise his fists while wearing underwear. That number seems to be 2,000.
During this session, such luminaries as Academy Award-winning actor and fight fan Robert Duvall and former Cowboys free safety Darren Woodson (and fight commentator) were introduced to those assembled. Woodson, the hardest-hitting non-fighter on the stage, asked if there were any Clottey fans in the crowd.
About six people cheered -- two of whom seemed to be sympathetic Pacquiao fans.
Woodson then asked if there were any Pacquiao fans on hand, and a roar cascaded over the stage. Soon, after Clottey toed the scale at 147 pounds, Pacquiao showed up to strip down. As if cued, the crowd started in with the familiar, rhythmic chant, “Man-NEE! Man-NEE!” The cry is to boxing today what “Reg-GIE, Reg-GIE” was in October 1978.
Off to the side, having slipped back into his almost-Cowboy-blue sweats, Clottey smirked. Then he bowing his head and rocked to the beat of the crowd. He even mouthed, “Man-NEE! Man-NEE!” to himself, seeming bemused at the whole ritual. Neither fighter could resist laughing at the farcical “stare-down” tradition that is often an integral part to the weigh-in showcase. The absence of acrimony in the week leading up to this bout has been remarkable; about the only trash talk we’ve heard is Top Rank chief Bob Arum pounding away at MGM Mirage for holding this date for Golden Boy Productions, and turning back this fight at the Grand Garden Arena. More on that issue later.
In the here-and-now, few dedicated boxing journalists covering this week’s WBO welterweight title bout seem to be giving Clottey an honest chance to win this fight. Understandable. Even the highest praise, for him, seems to ensure doom in the ring: He has a great heart, a great chin, and is willing to swap blows with a man who rendered a similarly brave warrior, Ricky Hatton, to the fetal position inside of four minutes. Clottey is comfortable at 147 pounds (Pacquiao weighed in a bit lighter, at 145 ¾), and even more comfortable at a little heavier than 147. There is talk that by the time he ducks into the ring tonight, Clottey will be closer to a middleweight, edging toward 160, apparently invoking something of an anti-Jared diet plan for 24 hours.
So Clottey will be bigger, a larger man and an easy target. But whether he knows something no one else does, if he’s figured out the formula to outwit the Pacman, has to be sorted out before 50,000 fans in a domed football stadium. Whether the brave and bemused challenger will be chanting his own name, not hearing again of, “Man-NEE! Man-NEE!” would be one of the sport’s great upsets. That possibility, however far-flung, is why they lace up the gloves.
Feeling punchy
More notes from Dallas:
• Duvall was swarmed by fans behind the stage, after the weigh-in, and uncorked one of the week’s best quotes: “That's enough Filipinos for one day!” Then he hustled into the safe confines of Cowboys Stadium.
• Ring announcer Michael Buffer is an aficionado of classic American-made cars. He once owned a 1932 Ford “deuce coupe” and Ford models from 1951 and ’52. This car conversation started because he got a laugh out of the “rumble seat” headline on the blog I wrote about him earlier this week. Evidently no one has placed Buffer, in a literary sense, in a rumble seat.
• Comment to note, from the stage, from Jerry Jones: “Bob Arum is one of the most credible men I’ve worked with.” Watching Arum and Jones interact, it’s clear they are kindred spirits. They behave like they’ve known each other since they were kids.
• One person who believes Pacquiao will have a far more difficult than expected fight is veteran AP sports writer Tim Dahlberg. “I may be the only person to believe this,” he sent in a tweet earlier today.
• How do you make money at a fight card? Astonishingly high markups at the concession stands. At Friday night’s Fox Sports bout card at the Gaylord Texan, which drew about 2,000 fans (though not exactly the same 2,000 who follow Pacquiao around), a Snickers bar was priced at $3. To quote John Travolta as Vincent Vega in “Pulp Fiction,” confronting Uma Thurman’s $6 milkshake, “What’s it got, bourbon in it?”
• Freddie Roach is a book waiting to happen, and that book will actually happen: “The Wild Card: Hard-fought Lessons from a Life in the Ring” by Roach and Peter Owen Nelson, is set for a July release by Skyhorse Publishing. The forward is by Pacquiao.
• That “Death Star” reference for Cowboys Stadium, I thought I originated that prior to last football season. But I’ve heard the local media also uses that term for the stadium, to which I say, “dang.”
Follow John Katsilometes on Twitter at twitter.com/JohnnyKats.
Source: lasvegassun.com
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