GRAPEVINE, TEXAS--In my brief but also unspectacular amateur and collegiate boxing career, it was said that I floated like a butterfly but stung like a moth.
I'm not thinking about butterflies or moths right now but I wish I could be a fly this weekend, a fly on the wall in Floyd Kill Joy Mayweather's so called “Big Boy” Mansion.
You can be sure Floyd will pretend that he won't watch the big doings in Big D but we all know he will be glued to his big screen television.
You see, this weekend is a 72 hour period during which Mayweather can't run and can't hide the popularity of Manny Pacquiao.
They say 45,000 will sit in the gleaming seats of the Cowboys Stadium to watch Pacman's scrum against a Ghanaian named Joshua Clottey. It boggles the mind, a Filipino fighting an a little known African fellow before so many people in the Dallas area.
Pacman promoter Bob Arum informs that a check of his books show that Pacquiao's PPV TV footprint is growing in leaps and bounds, that Megamanny has produced 2.9 total PPV TV buys in his previous fights and that this event, while likely not hitting anywhere near the one million buy mark, will easily push Pacquiao over the three million PPV buy total.
Mayweather can't win, can't escape the giant shadow cast by Little Manny this Friday, this Saturday and this Sunday.
At least two American TV networks, CBS and ABC, have crews trailing Pacman around this weekend in addition to the HBO PPV staff.
If Mayweather picks up national newspaper USA TODAY to see how his NBA wagers fared Thursday night, he will have to look at a full page for Clottey-Pacquiao.
The Los Angeles Times has two reporters on the scene and the New York Times, New York Post and New York Daily News are also represented.
I've been on Radio Ghana twice already and although I haven't seen Hall of Famer Azumah Nelson turn up here yet in support of Clottey, you know what the biggest story in that African nation will be this weekend.
Ghanaians are on pins and needles, hoping their fearless warrior can topple the ever expanding Pacquiao Empire.
It's hard to overemphasize how the Pacman presence grows exponentially. Manny spent $100,00 through Robert P. Lyons of a company called Star Flight International, Inc., to charter a plane for himself and 140 of his nearest and dearest from LA to Dallas and back.
“It was neat, the airline had a banner made up which said, AIR PACQUIAO, and Manny saw it when he walked onto the plane. He really liked that.”
Unless Mayweather becomes blind or deaf, he can't get away from his biggest potential opponent, not this weekend.
I've only one discouraging note from Pacman Central but I promise not to “hound” anyone about it.
You know Manny's precipous, yapping Jack Russell terrier named Pacman?
There was no room at the inn, the glamorous mini-Texas complete with mock Alamo and recreation of the Riverwalk that is the Gaylord Texan Hotel.
Pets are not permitted not even the special dog of a special world champion and Pinoy icon.
In other words, tiny Pacman has been treated like a dog.
Vernie Torres, the Pinoy ex-boxer once attached to the Roy Jones promotional camp, is the dog's minder, assigned to the task by the bigger Pacman.
“Pacman is fine, he is staying at a local friend of ours apartment, so he is good,” Flores told me.
The dog is fine and, if I were that fly on Floyd's wall, I could report back to you about the self proclaimed “Cash Cow” of boxing.
Riddle me this, what did the old Soviet Union and Mayweather's inflated ego have in common?
Answer: They both span 11 time zones.
But, this weekend, it's Pacquiao who is mercilessly dogging Mayweather.
You look up ubiquitous in the dictionary, you see Manny's smiling mug.
It's enough to make anyone named Mayweather sick.
You heard of what happened at Wounded Knee, that massacre?
This is Mayweather's weekend at Wounded Ego.
This weekend, the Pacquiao Presence will go on and on and on...something like Pacman the pooch when he starts yapping.
If was Mayweather, I'd get some earmuffs and eyeshades to block the oncoming Pacman media assault.
You feel me?
(mlcmarley@aol.com)
Source: examiner.com
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