By NORMAN CHAD, The Washington Post
Like the rest of the planet, I am fervently awaiting the Manny Pacquiao-Floyd Mayweather Jr. match. It could be the sport's last great gift to the huddled masses. Beyond Dempsey-Tunney, Louis-Schmeling, Robinson-La Motta, Ali-Frazier and Hearns-Leonard, Pacquiao- Mayweather will embrace the new multicultural world order and return boxing -- if only for a single night -- to the brightest lights on the biggest stage.
That's assuming they ever fight and assuming folks are willing to pay $64.95 to view it.
(That price might sound steep, but look at it this way -- the next time you fly, if you forgo checking two bags, right there you've saved enough money to afford Pacquiao-Mayweather!)
The two have fought outside the ring in trying to set up a fight inside the ring.
Mayweather implied Pacquiao had used performance-enhancing drugs and insisted on blood testing just before they fight. Pacquiao would not agree and sued Mayweather for defamation of character.
Pacquiao says giving blood just before a fight would weaken him.
(My own anecdotal evidence supports Pacquiao. In 1998, I gave blood and, less than 72 hours later, foolishly proposed to my second wife. Then last year I gave blood just before writing a column on statistical debris in sports, and dozens of readers e-mailed to tell me it was the worst article they had ever read.)
Unable to come to terms on a fight, Pacquiao proceeded to dominate Joshua Clottey on March 13 and Mayweather proceeded to dominate Shane Mosley on May 1, reviving debate on which champion is the world's best pound-for-pound boxer.
(I am often asked why the term "best pound-for-pound boxer" is used. Indeed, was G. Gordon Liddy referred to as the best pound-for-pound plumber in the business? Is Bobby Flay the best pound-for-pound chef? Is Yo-Yo Ma the best pound-for-pound cellist? The pound-for-pound expression essentially acknowledges the fact that a bantamweight, say, cannot beat a middleweight, but pound-for-pound, the bantamweight might be a better fighter. Of course, outside of the United States, they talk about the best "kilogram-for-kilogram" boxer.)
Whenever Pacquiao-
Mayweather happens, it likely will attract one of the biggest pay-per-view audiences ever; in 2007, Mayweather's fight against Oscar De La Hoya drew a record-breaking 2.45 million buys.
(In the 20th century, the heavyweights carried boxing's biggest paydays. Of late, if the WBA, WBC, WBO or IBF heavyweight champion walked into the room, you'd just assume he was one of Ben Roethlisberger's bodyguards. For anyone seeking a new life of anonymity, the heavyweight division is on par with the witness protection program, minus the government perks.)
(Okay, let's play the "World Heavyweight Champions or World Leaders Game." I'm going to list 16 names -- half are 21st-century heavyweight champs, half are presidents or prime ministers. You determine who belongs to which category: Traian Basescu, Lamon Brewster, Heinz Fischer, David Haye, Horst Kohler, Sergei Liakhovich, Oleg Maskaev, Dmitry Medvedev, Samuel Peter, Hasim Rahman, Fredrik Reinfeldt, Kevin Rudd, Corrie Sanders, Nicolas Sarkozy, Alvaro Uribe and Nikolai Valuev. Good luck!)
Other than their boxing skills, the two have little in common. Mayweather runs his mouth, Pacquiao runs for office.
Pacquiao has his own political party, the People's Champ Movement, making him sort of a younger Ron Paul with a better left hook.
Pacquiao has been running for a seat in the Philippine Congress. In the final days of his campaign, he was joined by his fight promoter, Bob Arum, which might indicate the 31-year-old is less astute in politics than pugilism.
(I'm certainly no expert in the electoral process, but do you really want to be side-by-side with Bob Arum -- maybe the most nefarious pound-for-pound promoter around -- when you're trying to earn the voters' trust?)
As for the likelihood of Pacquiao-Mayweather becoming a reality, it's a certainty. Nobody walks away from that much blood money.
Source: washingtonpost.com
Monday, 10 May 2010
Manny Pacquiao Vs Floyd Mayweather JR: There is Only One Fight in Boxing -- Ringside Report
By Geno McGahee, RingsideReport.com
The welterweight triangle has been reduced to two boxers, both claiming to be the best, and both with plenty of pugilistic evidence to back up their claims. Sugar Shane Mosley tried to upset Floyd Mayweather, JR., 41-0, 25 KO’s, in his last outing, to upset what seems to be an inevitable showdown with Filipino sensation, Manny Pacquiao, 51-3-2, 38 KO’s, but fell incredibly short.
Mosley came in as a 4-1 underdog, but it was similar to the odds against him when he stepped into the ring with the “Hands of Plaster” Antonio Margarito. In that fight, he beat and battered Margarito, leaving him in a mangled heap in January of 2009. At 38 years of age, it seemed that the deck was stacked against him, but those that followed the career of Mosley knew that he still had fight left and made up for his diminished skills with determination and strategy. Most believed that Mosley would lose a decision, unable to penetrate the defense of Mayweather, and out-punched. The fight fans were treated to a surprise.
For twelve rounds, Mayweather stood in front of Mosley, didn’t place his back against the ropes which has been his custom in the past, and hunted down Shane. Right hands and left hooks bounced off of his head with regularity and he eventually beat Mosley into a shell, looking for the final bell to ring. Never before had Mosley been put into this position. Even in his defeats, he showed the fighting spirit. He did everything in his power to overcome Vernon Forest and fought equally as hard to defeat Winky Wright, but came up short against both fighters twice. Mayweather turned Mosley into a frightened fighter, unwilling to risk knockout to attack, despite landing an incredible shot in round two, buckling the knees of Mayweather, JR.
With Mosley now knocked out of the welterweight picture, we now refocus on a bout that everyone in the world wants to see. At one time, the bout was nearly cemented in place, but it would get dirty. Allegations of steroid use were thrown at Pacquiao by Team Mayweather. A lawsuit against Team Mayweather was filed for defamation of character and the fight quickly fell apart.
Pacquiao went on to face Joshua Clottey, a capable and strong welterweight with an iron chin and a history of giving top fighters a run for their money. Against Manny, he was in his shell the entire time, afraid to throw in fear that the quick counters would send him crashing to the floor. Manny beat a quality fighter with ease, cruising to a decision. Clottey may have played it correctly, considering that he would have most likely been stopped had he shown any aggression. He was in a similar position to Mosley.
In the Philippines, Pacquiao has reached a near God-like status. He represents them and will say that he fights for them in the ring. When he wins, they find some vicarious victory through it, and when he defeated Oscar De La Hoya, it was as big for the country as it was for Manny’s career.
Pacquiao has been feasting on the bigger names in boxing over the last seven years. When you look at his career record since 2003, you cannot help but to see why he is so highly regarded.
2003
Manny burst onto the big time boxing scene with an eleventh round destruction of Mexican superstar, Marco Antonio Barrera, on HBO. Pacquiao, the underdog, got off the canvas to beat and batter Barrera into submission.
2004
Pacquiao would be involved in the fight of the year with Juan Manuel Marquez, battling to a draw and exchanging punches from start to finish. He would knock Marquez down three times in the opening round.
2005
The most recent loss of the career of Manny Pacquiao would happen this year, when Erik Morales, used his ring smarts to subdue Pacquiao and hold him off until the final bell, winning seven of the twelve rounds on all three cards.
Manny would rebound with a TKO over Hector Velazquez, setting up a 2006 rematch with Morales.
2006
Pacquiao would get revenge, pummeling Morales for ten rounds, stopping the Mexican legend for the first time in his career. A new and improved Pacquiao demonstrated a better right hand, which he used effectively to hurt Morales en route to the victory.
Pacquiao would follow up with a decision win over Oscar Larios, before facing Morales again at the end of the year, a bout he would win easily in three rounds.
2007
Pacquiao would stop Jorge Solis before facing Marco Antonio Barrera for the second time. In the rematch, Barrera made it clear that he wanted no part of the Filipino superstar, as he played defense for the entire fight, losing a wide decision.
2008
Pacquiao would fight three times. His first outing would be at super featherweight (130), a rematch with Juan Manuel Marquez. Once again, Marquez proved to be a puzzle for Manny, eking by with a split decision win. Although there was demand for a third encounter, Manny moved up to the lightweight division (135) and won the title via ninth round stoppage of David Diaz.
The biggest win of Manny’s career came when he signed to fight the much bigger, Oscar De La Hoya at a catch weight. Manny weighed in at 142 pounds, while De La Hoya came in at 145. The older and physically drained “Golden Boy” could not cope with the speed and timing and was beaten into submission in eight rounds, launching Pacquiao into a much larger PPV attraction.
2009
Two of the biggest names in boxing would be destroyed this year. Manny would begin the year by knocking out British superstar, Ricky Hatton in two rounds, and end the year, battering Puerto Rican superstar, Miguel Cotto, stopping him in the final round. He would move up to welterweight to face Cotto.
2010
The year began with a welterweight bout with Joshua Clottey, an easy decision victory. Now, the future looks bright and hopefully it will have a showdown with Mayweather included.
Floyd Mayweather hasn’t had the star studded cast of opponents that Manny has had, but he has certainly faced and defeated his fair share of top notch opponents. From 2005 to now, he has beaten with ease some of boxing’s best.
2005
Mayweather’s plan to become a big PPV attraction was at the expense of Arturo Gatti. He battered the brawler into submission in six rounds. He would stop former champion, Sharmba Mitchell in six in his next fight.
2006
In a grudge match, Mayweather, JR., would square off against a motivated and well trained Zab Judah. Mayweather survived an early storm to outlast and outpoint Judah en route to a unanimous decision. He would end the year with a decision over the unremarkable Carlos Baldomir.
2007
Mayweather would take on two of the biggest names in boxing. He would outpoint Oscar De La Hoya and then go on to stop the then undefeated Ricky Hatton in ten rounds. After the Hatton fight, a rematch with De La Hoya was the plan, but fell through and “Money” announced his retirement.
2009
After nearly two years away, Mayweather, JR., returned and dominated Juan Manuel Marquez, sending a message to Manny Pacquiao. He dominated the man that gave him so much trouble.
2010
Sugar Shane Mosley proved to be little challenge for Floyd as he battered him for the entire fight, winning a wide decision, hopefully setting up this showdown.
There is no other option at welterweight for either man. The public has had enough and they must come to an agreement to fight for the good of boxing. This is the equivalent of Thomas Hearns-Sugar Ray Leonard…this is the most important fight possibly since that bout, and with the money involved, it’s hard to believe that they would not fight. No other welterweight is seen as competitive for either man. They need each other and perhaps, we will see them clash this year. It looks rather likely at this point.
Source: ringsidereport.com
Mosley came in as a 4-1 underdog, but it was similar to the odds against him when he stepped into the ring with the “Hands of Plaster” Antonio Margarito. In that fight, he beat and battered Margarito, leaving him in a mangled heap in January of 2009. At 38 years of age, it seemed that the deck was stacked against him, but those that followed the career of Mosley knew that he still had fight left and made up for his diminished skills with determination and strategy. Most believed that Mosley would lose a decision, unable to penetrate the defense of Mayweather, and out-punched. The fight fans were treated to a surprise.
For twelve rounds, Mayweather stood in front of Mosley, didn’t place his back against the ropes which has been his custom in the past, and hunted down Shane. Right hands and left hooks bounced off of his head with regularity and he eventually beat Mosley into a shell, looking for the final bell to ring. Never before had Mosley been put into this position. Even in his defeats, he showed the fighting spirit. He did everything in his power to overcome Vernon Forest and fought equally as hard to defeat Winky Wright, but came up short against both fighters twice. Mayweather turned Mosley into a frightened fighter, unwilling to risk knockout to attack, despite landing an incredible shot in round two, buckling the knees of Mayweather, JR.
With Mosley now knocked out of the welterweight picture, we now refocus on a bout that everyone in the world wants to see. At one time, the bout was nearly cemented in place, but it would get dirty. Allegations of steroid use were thrown at Pacquiao by Team Mayweather. A lawsuit against Team Mayweather was filed for defamation of character and the fight quickly fell apart.
Pacquiao went on to face Joshua Clottey, a capable and strong welterweight with an iron chin and a history of giving top fighters a run for their money. Against Manny, he was in his shell the entire time, afraid to throw in fear that the quick counters would send him crashing to the floor. Manny beat a quality fighter with ease, cruising to a decision. Clottey may have played it correctly, considering that he would have most likely been stopped had he shown any aggression. He was in a similar position to Mosley.
In the Philippines, Pacquiao has reached a near God-like status. He represents them and will say that he fights for them in the ring. When he wins, they find some vicarious victory through it, and when he defeated Oscar De La Hoya, it was as big for the country as it was for Manny’s career.
Pacquiao has been feasting on the bigger names in boxing over the last seven years. When you look at his career record since 2003, you cannot help but to see why he is so highly regarded.
2003
Manny burst onto the big time boxing scene with an eleventh round destruction of Mexican superstar, Marco Antonio Barrera, on HBO. Pacquiao, the underdog, got off the canvas to beat and batter Barrera into submission.
2004
Pacquiao would be involved in the fight of the year with Juan Manuel Marquez, battling to a draw and exchanging punches from start to finish. He would knock Marquez down three times in the opening round.
2005
The most recent loss of the career of Manny Pacquiao would happen this year, when Erik Morales, used his ring smarts to subdue Pacquiao and hold him off until the final bell, winning seven of the twelve rounds on all three cards.
Manny would rebound with a TKO over Hector Velazquez, setting up a 2006 rematch with Morales.
2006
Pacquiao would get revenge, pummeling Morales for ten rounds, stopping the Mexican legend for the first time in his career. A new and improved Pacquiao demonstrated a better right hand, which he used effectively to hurt Morales en route to the victory.
Pacquiao would follow up with a decision win over Oscar Larios, before facing Morales again at the end of the year, a bout he would win easily in three rounds.
2007
Pacquiao would stop Jorge Solis before facing Marco Antonio Barrera for the second time. In the rematch, Barrera made it clear that he wanted no part of the Filipino superstar, as he played defense for the entire fight, losing a wide decision.
2008
Pacquiao would fight three times. His first outing would be at super featherweight (130), a rematch with Juan Manuel Marquez. Once again, Marquez proved to be a puzzle for Manny, eking by with a split decision win. Although there was demand for a third encounter, Manny moved up to the lightweight division (135) and won the title via ninth round stoppage of David Diaz.
The biggest win of Manny’s career came when he signed to fight the much bigger, Oscar De La Hoya at a catch weight. Manny weighed in at 142 pounds, while De La Hoya came in at 145. The older and physically drained “Golden Boy” could not cope with the speed and timing and was beaten into submission in eight rounds, launching Pacquiao into a much larger PPV attraction.
2009
Two of the biggest names in boxing would be destroyed this year. Manny would begin the year by knocking out British superstar, Ricky Hatton in two rounds, and end the year, battering Puerto Rican superstar, Miguel Cotto, stopping him in the final round. He would move up to welterweight to face Cotto.
2010
The year began with a welterweight bout with Joshua Clottey, an easy decision victory. Now, the future looks bright and hopefully it will have a showdown with Mayweather included.
Floyd Mayweather hasn’t had the star studded cast of opponents that Manny has had, but he has certainly faced and defeated his fair share of top notch opponents. From 2005 to now, he has beaten with ease some of boxing’s best.
2005
Mayweather’s plan to become a big PPV attraction was at the expense of Arturo Gatti. He battered the brawler into submission in six rounds. He would stop former champion, Sharmba Mitchell in six in his next fight.
2006
In a grudge match, Mayweather, JR., would square off against a motivated and well trained Zab Judah. Mayweather survived an early storm to outlast and outpoint Judah en route to a unanimous decision. He would end the year with a decision over the unremarkable Carlos Baldomir.
2007
Mayweather would take on two of the biggest names in boxing. He would outpoint Oscar De La Hoya and then go on to stop the then undefeated Ricky Hatton in ten rounds. After the Hatton fight, a rematch with De La Hoya was the plan, but fell through and “Money” announced his retirement.
2009
After nearly two years away, Mayweather, JR., returned and dominated Juan Manuel Marquez, sending a message to Manny Pacquiao. He dominated the man that gave him so much trouble.
2010
Sugar Shane Mosley proved to be little challenge for Floyd as he battered him for the entire fight, winning a wide decision, hopefully setting up this showdown.
There is no other option at welterweight for either man. The public has had enough and they must come to an agreement to fight for the good of boxing. This is the equivalent of Thomas Hearns-Sugar Ray Leonard…this is the most important fight possibly since that bout, and with the money involved, it’s hard to believe that they would not fight. No other welterweight is seen as competitive for either man. They need each other and perhaps, we will see them clash this year. It looks rather likely at this point.
Source: ringsidereport.com
The Myth and the Reality of Floyd Mayweather Jr -- SecondsOut
By Thomas Hauser, SecondsOut.com
In today’s society, Patrick Kehoe observes, “hyperbole tends to replicate itself as an electronic echo, transmitting the desired information as truth logged into infinite memory. Just keep talking, and something aggrandizing will affix to the culture at large.”
One might cite Floyd Mayweather Jr in support of that theory.
Mayweather is an extremely talented fighter who wants to be superstar famous and mega-rich. His record stands at 41-and-0 with 25 knockouts. In recent years, he and Manny Pacquiao have been vying for the right to be called the best pound-for-pound fighter in the world.
Mayweather lives alone in a 23,000-square-foot house in Las Vegas. “When I was growing up,” he says, “seven of us lived in one bedroom. I got a closet now that’s bigger than that bedroom was.”
Floyd has never been married and has four children by two different women. A seven-man security detail that conjures up images of PEDs accompanies him at public functions. He takes pride in his appearance and has no tattoos. “I like the way I look without them,” he notes. “And I’m not a follower.”
Mayweather is obsessed with money to the point of having changed his sobriquet from “Pretty Boy Floyd” to “Money Mayweather.” When asked to name his heroes, he cites Bill Gates, Steve Wynn, Carlos Slim, Mark Cuban, and Warren Buffet; all hugely successful entrepreneurs. He’s often draped in expensive bling and brags about his winnings at Las Vegas sports books. The probability is that, like most gamblers, he loses more than he wins.
Mayweather can be seductively charming. He’s also very much into control. When he says “jump,” the people in his inner circle tend to ask, “How high?”
“I call the shots,” Floyd says. “Everything that goes my way isn’t always the right way. I know that. But I like things the way I like them.”
Asked for more in the way of self-description, Mayweather offers, “I don’t like to be lied to or disrespected. I ain’t never gonna punch a clock for nobody. I was born to be a winner. I’m happy with my life. I don’t hate on people. Some people say I’m an asshole, but I don’t hurt nobody. I got a heart. God must love me, because look where I’m at.”
The public feuding within Mayweather’s family has been referred to as boxing’s version of The Jerry Springer Show.
The most notable estrangement was between Floyd and his father and lasted for nine years. Floyd Sr fought professionally in the 1970s and ‘80s and later spent five-and-a-half years in prison for cocaine trafficking. During the chill between father and son, Floyd Sr lobbied to train fighters who would be facing Floyd Jr and declared, “Floyd thinks he’s bigger than boxing, and he ain’t. No one is bigger than boxing.”
They reconciled in May 2009. Now Floyd Sr says, “My son is bigger than boxing.”
Floyd has been trained by his uncle, Roger Mayweather, for most of his pro career. Roger was imprisoned in 2007 for assaulting his son’s maternal grandmother. Last year, he was indicted on charges of battery and coercion. The police report on the latter incident states that Roger punched a woman named Melissa St. Vil in the ribs several times and wrapped his hands around her throat, causing her to nearly pass out. When the police arrived, St. Vil was coughing and spitting up blood. Trial on these charges is scheduled for later this year.
Floyd Jr. has had his own issues with women and the criminal justice system. In 2002, he plead guilty to two counts of domestic violence. Two years later, he was found guilty on two counts of misdemeanor battery for assaulting two women in a Las Vegas night club.
The other core members of Team Mayweather are Leonard Ellerbe and Al Haymon. Ellerbe is Mayweather’s personal assistant, administrative aide, and business manager. Haymon masterminds Mayweather’s fight contracts.
In most sports, a fighter has to beat the best in order to reach the top. Corrupt world sanctioning organizations and HBO’s outsized marketing power have deprived boxing of that legitimacy.
Within this environment Mayweather has combined careful matchmaking and a cautious ring style with an attention-grabbing persona and superb boxing skills to build a brand name.
Floyd craves celebrity status. He understands what it can do for him financially, not to mention his ego. As Carlo Rotello wrote in the New York Times, “He wants to be bigger than boxing can make him; kind of like what The Joker has in mind in Batman when he says he wants his face on the dollar bill.”
Thus, Mayweather has expended considerable time and energy to turn himself into a magnet for media attention and build his profile outside the ring. In 2007, he appeared on Dancing with the Stars. One year later, he faced off against “Big Show” on WrestleMania. Truth and the business of combat sports rarely go hand in hand, so Floyd can be forgiven for boasting that he was paid US$20,000,000 for his wrestling foray. Golden Boy promoter Richard Schaefer puts the number at “about $3,500,000.” Still, that’s a staggering sum for a one-night acting gig.
The bulwark of Mayweather’s image-making has been HBO’s TV “reality” series, 24/7. The show has been used to promote eight pay-per-view fights, including Floyd’s outings against Oscar De La Hoya, Ricky Hatton, Juan Manuel Marquez, and Shane Mosley.
24/7 has propagated the view that everything Mayweather touches turns to gold and given him a platform to craft his outside-the-ring persona. To some, Floyd symbolizes crass materialism and conspicuous consumption. But as Lou Duva once noted, “Nobody goes into boxing to be loved. You’re in this game to make money.”
Mayweather has made money. His 2007 fight against Oscar De La Hoya engendered a record-breaking 2,446,000 buys. Oscar was the driving force behind that promotion. But Floyd’s seven pay-per-view fights have averaged close to one million buys.
“What’s this fight going to do for my legacy?” Floyd asked before squaring off against Ricky Hatton two-and-a-half years ago. “I got no fake answer. It’s not going to do nothing for my legacy. I’m fighting because I’m a business man. I’m like Bob Barker. ‘Come on down.’ If the price is right, let’s make it happen.”
“People love controversy, and I’m controversial,” Mayweather offers. “If you see Tom Cruise in a movie, that’s not really him. It’s a character he’s playing. Some of what I do in public is me, and some of it is playing a character. You figure out which is which. At the end of the day, it don’t matter whether the media likes me or not. People love me. When I go places, I get a lot of love.”
It might be that Mayweather confuses love with the attention he gets for being a celebrity. Either way, love isn’t central to his image. The pillars of his public persona are money and his ring prowess.
Mayweather’s skill as a fighter is a matter of record, and he’s boastful when it comes to extolling his place in the sweet science. Among his claims: “I’m the face of boxing . . . I can make anybody look like a nobody . . . When fighters are facing me, they’re facing the best. When I’m facing them, I’m just facing fighters . . . Some fighters do different things good. I do everything great . . . There’s no remedy on how to beat Floyd Mayweather. It’s like a difficult math problem that no one can solve . . . I’m the king of the throne. I do what I want to do . . . All roads in boxing lead to Floyd Mayweather.”
Mayweather also maintains, “I’m the reason people don’t watch heavyweights no more. I made the world pay attention to the smaller man in boxing.”
That will come as a surprise to Sugar Ray Leonard, Thomas Hearns, and Roberto Duran, whose internecine warfare captivated the world several decades ago. Fans of Manny Pacquiao might also take issue.
Then there’s the claim, “I’m the best fighter ever. Muhammad Ali? He lost to Leon Spinks, a guy who had seven pro fights. Sugar Ray Robinson? He didn’t win a championship after just one year like I did.”
In truth, Mayweather won his first world title belt after two years, not one. Robinson had to wait six years and fight 75 fights before he was given an opportunity to fight for the championship. In his first 131 fights, Robinson lost once. During that time, he beat Sammy Angott (twice), Fritzie Zivic (twice), Tommy Bell (twice), Kid Gavilan (twice), and Jake LaMotta (five times).
As for Ali; he had the toughest inquisitors of any champion ever and won five of six fights against Sonny Liston, George Foreman, and Joe Frazier. His greatness is untouched by what happened when he got old.
That said; even Mayweather’s critics acknowledge that he’s a formidable fighting machine.
The foundation of Floyd’s success in the ring is preparation. He knows how to do things right in the gym and trains his ass off. Getting ready for a fight, he always pays the price.
“You got to be ready every time you step in the ring,” Floyd says. “You got to be mentally ready before you can do the things you have to do to get ready physically. Then, when you’re physically ready, you can take the final mental steps. The mind tells the body what to do, but it’s all tied together. I’ve never been in a fight where my mind said something and my body wouldn’t do it.”
Those looking for a hole in Mayweather’s discipline point to his penchant for fast food. In response, Floyd notes, “Fast food is better than drinking. Fast food is better than drugs. Nobody works harder than me in the gym. That’s one of the reasons why, in fights, I don’t get tired.”
Mental burn-out is another matter. On October 23, 2007, an uncharacteristically somber Mayweather told the media, “It’s not like it used to be. I think I liked this sport better when I was fighting for free. When you’re young, you don’t have concerns, so you’re not worried about nothing. I mean, you never know what can happen in boxing. A lot of times, you worry about certain things like, if I die in the ring, what’s going to happen with your family? When I didn’t have no kids to live for, I really wasn’t worried about nothing. I was like, I don’t care what goes on. I’m just going there to fight. If I die, so be it. Now that I’m a lot older and a lot wiser, it’s more like I’ve got something to live for. I’ve got some people who love me. So that worries me a lot, because I feel like my job is like a cop. One shot can end your whole career.”
Seven weeks later, Mayweather knocked out Ricky Hatton. Then, on June 6, 2008, he announced that he was “permanently retiring from boxing.”
“I needed a rest, physically and mentally,” Floyd says. “I was burned out.”
Few people in boxing took Mayweather’s retirement seriously. The assumption was that he’d be back in the ring, sooner rather than later.
The return came against Juan Manuel Marquez on September 19, 2009. Maybe Floyd missed the spotlight and the competition. Just as likely, he needed money. On July 3, 2009, the Associated Press reported that the Internal Revenue Service had filed tax liens against him totaling US$6,170,000 and that he owed another $193,000 pursuant to a New Jersey Superior Court judgment.
There were also persistent rumors, denied by Leonard Ellerbe, that Floyd had been swindled out of millions of dollars in a financial scam.
Equally important, Mayweather thought at the time of his retirement that he could make a fortune without boxing; through endorsements, investments, and business ventures. That was easier said than done.
“He wasn’t broke,” Floyd Sr says. “But he had a money problem.”
Against Marquez, Mayweather showed that he was still a superb fighter. The one sour note in the proceedings came when Floyd blew off the agreed-upon contract weight of 144 pounds (nine pounds above Juan Manuel’s previous high) and weighed in at 146 pounds. The contract was hastily amended. Mayweather paid Marquez an additional US$600,000 out of his reported $10,000,000 guarantee, and the bout took place as scheduled. Floyd won a lopsided decision.
Eight weeks after Mayweather decisioned Marquez, Manny Pacquiao annihilated Miguel Cotto. That set the stage for Mayweather-Pacquiao, which, it was presumed, would be the largest-grossing fight in boxing history.
Not.
Mayweather-Pacquiao fell through to the dismay of the boxing community. Depending on one’s point of view, that was because Floyd made unreasonable demands with regard to PED testing that he knew would interfere with Manny’s training (a/k/a “the Pacquiao avoidance program”) or Pacquiao had something to hide.
Either way, Floyd needed a name opponent to counterbalance the fallout from Mayweather-Pacquiao falling out. Meanwhile, Shane Mosley was scheduled to fight Andre Berto (who, like Mayweather, is managed by Al Haymon) on January 30th.
On January 12th, Berto’s ancestral home of Haiti was devastated by a catastrophic earthquake. Six days later, citing concern for members of his family and the fact that he was mentally and physically exhausted, Andre withdrew from the Mosley fight. That same day, Richard Schaefer of Golden Boy (which promotes Shane and co-promotes Mayweather) announced that he was working to put Mayweather-Mosley together for May 1st.
A decade ago, Mosley and Roy Jones vied for pound-for-pound honors, although the consensus was that Jones reigned. Then Shane lost to Vernon Forrest and the debate ended.
Mosley is now thirty-eight years old and had fought only twice since 2007. In one of those fights, he struggled on old legs against Ricardo Mayorga before knocking the Nicaraguan out in the twelfth round. Then, on January 24, 2009, Shane scored an impressive knockout victory over Antonio Margarito to capture the WBA welterweight crown.
Margarito-Mosley was the platform on which Mayweather-Mosley was built.
Shane has a name. Unlike many elite fighters, he really will fight anyone. And Mayweather felt that beating Mosley convincingly would legitimize his own claim to greatness.
Shane had the same agenda as Mayweather, but hoped for a different outcome. “Everybody has Manny Pacquiao and Mayweather on their mind,” he said. “I’m going to make sure that they know that I’m here. I want to make a point that I’m the best welterweight fighter right now. I’m not just going to talk about it. I want to be about it. There’s no welterweight out there who can beat me.”
The marketing theme for Mayweather-Mosley was “who R U picking?” That rang a bit hollow, since virtually everyone in the know was picking Mayweather. The odds opened at 3-to-1 and rose as high as 9-to-2 before settling at 7-to-2.
At the March 2nd kick-off press conference in New York, Schaefer proclaimed, “This is one of the best fights in the history of boxing” and predicted three million pay-per-view buys. Later in the promotion, when Mayweather was referenced during a tele-conference call as “the greatest fighter in boxing today,” Schaefer corrected, “Not of today; the greatest of all time.”
One hopes that, in his previous career as a banker, Richard fulfilled his fiduciary obligation to clients with more acumen and/or candor.
Mayweather has the habit of demeaning his opponent in the build-up to a fight, and Mayweather-Mosley was no exception. After calling Shane a “dumb motherfucker,” Floyd opined, “He’s desperate, so he has no choice but to fight me. His career is coming to an end; and before he goes, he wants that last big payday. I don’t really like to speak on people’s personal business, because his personal life is his personal life. But he just went through a divorce, and sometimes going through a hard divorce can be very excruciating. It can cost a lot of money.”
“This is our legacy on who’s the best fighter,” Shane responded. “It’s a challenge that I’m ready to take. It’s nothing personal. I’m ready to go into the history books as the guy to beat Floyd Mayweather and the guy that beats everybody out there. The last man standing; I’m into that. I don’t bark. I bite.”
But when pressed, Shane added, “He wants to talk about my suit. He’s talking about the curls in my hair and if I’m getting a nose job. Is he gay or something? You know, all of these different things about my personal stuff. I mean, you’ve got to watch out. There’s different things that don’t sound right.”
Then there was the issue of performance-enhancing drugs.
The contract for Mayweather-Mosley gave Floyd the right to dictate the terms of drug testing. Anything he wanted would be put in place as long as each fighter was subject to the same testing requirements.
Mayweather might be sincere in his claim that he wants elaborate PED testing for all of his fights as a way of ensuring “a level playing field for clean athletes.” Or he might be avoiding a showdown with Manny Pacquiao (whose phobia for needles is genuine). Let’s give Floyd the benefit of the doubt on that one.
Golden Boy appears to be less committed to PED testing. How else to explain the fact that it never raised the issue in conjunction with Hopkins-Jones II, Haye-Ruiz, or any of the other high-profile fights that it promoted recently?
Regardless, drug testing was in place for Mayweather-Mosley. During a March 18th conference call, Travis Tygart (CEO of the United States Anti-Doping Agency) advised the media, “Both athletes have agreed to USADA’s testing protocols, including blood and urine testing, which is unannounced, which is anywhere and anytime. There is no limit to the number of tests that we can complete on these boxers. Any positive tests will be published following a thorough legal process provided under our protocols.”
Initially, Tygart said that a positive test could result in a two-year suspension of the athlete and cancellation of the fight. But it was later acknowledged that punishment could come only after “a full legal process.” That would include, among other things, an arbitration proceeding before the American Arbitration Association to be conducted under restrictions of confidentiality, which would delay punitive action until after the fight. Tygart also admitted, “We have no direct control to enforce compliance.” In other words, the Nevada State Athletic Commission would have to impose the suspension.
Judd Burstein (Mosley’s lawyer) elaborated on that theme, saying, “There is no provision one way or the other in the contract for public disclosure of the test results; although I would think that the parties would be bound to report a positive test result to the Nevada commission.”
Meanwhile, Mosley was in the embarrassing position of having to acknowledge yet again that he’d used banned performance enhancing drugs prior to his 2003 victory over Oscar De La Hoya. That much was clear from Shane’s own testimony before a grand jury that investigated BALCO and its founder, Victor Conte.
Mosley claims that he took the drugs unknowingly, although circumstances suggest otherwise. He also notes that he never tested positive for PEDS and, during an April 21st conference call, told the media, “I don’t feel that I should be condemned for something that I never tested positive for.”
Of course, one reason that athletes sought Conte’s services was because he put them on regimens that would allow them to avoid tested positive for PEDs.
Mayweather, for his part, expressed the view that Mosley knew what he was putting into his body before he fought De La Hoya. “Marion Jones lied under oath and she went to jail,” Floyd trumpeted. “So what’s supposed to happen to Shane? We know what he’s done. He lied under oath.”
Then again; Mayweather repeatedly ducked questions about his own use of xylocaine to ease the pain in his hands during fights. Xylocaine is now legal under the rules of the Nevada State Athletic Commission if administered under the supervision of a doctor. That wasn’t always the case. USADA did not test the fighters for xylocaine.
When fight week arrived, Team Mayweather was in full bloom. Uncle Roger dismissed the media with the thought, “You guys don’t know shit about boxing so it don’t make no difference what you say.” Floyd did his part for good media relations by refusing to attend the HBO fighter meeting on Friday and declaring “I created 24/7.”
Floyd also proclaimed, “I’m doing Shane Mosley a favor. I’m letting him share the ring with greatness . . . Shane Mosley is an HBO fighter. Floyd Mayweather is a mega-superstar . . . He’s good at what he do. I’m great at what I do . . . Shane has checker pieces on the board. I’m playing with chess pieces. Most fighters have checkers pieces. And if they have a few chess pieces, they can’t move them as well as me . . . My game plan is to be Floyd Mayweather.”
One refreshing aspect to the promotion was that the sanctioning bodies were largely ignored. Mosley was the WBA welterweight champion. But Mayweather refused to pay the WBA sanctioning fee, noting,” There should be just one belt in each division. The way things are now, anyone can get to be a champion.” Shane followed suit on the theory that, if he lost, the title would be declared vacant; and if he won, he wouldn’t need the WBA belt to make money.
The WBC tried to get into the act by offering its “diamond championship” belt to the winner for a one-percent sanctioning fee. That was rejected as a bad joke, after which WBC president Jose Sulaiman offered the belt “at cost.” That offer was turned down on the theory that Mayweather-Mosley would be a happier occasion with $45,000 less in expenses and without a WBC presence.
Ticket sales were a bit disappointing. Ultimately, the attendance on fight night was 15,117, which meant that a thousand tickets went unsold. But during fight week, the buzz was that Mayweather-Mosley would do huge pay-per-view numbers. HBO believed that Floyd had developed an “anchor fan base” among urban African-Americans. And Mayweather-Marquez (which drew poorly at the gate) had engendered 1,080,000 pay-per-view buys.
No one took Schaefer seriously at the final pre-fight press conference when he said, “Our goal is to break four million buys.” But 1,500,000 seemed like a realistic number, which would have pushed Mayweather-Mosley past De La Hoya-Trinidad into second place on the all-time buy list for non-heavyweight fights.
Mayweather (who had a US$22,500,000 guarantee plus an upside) was telling people, “I should walk away from this with about sixty million.” Mosley had a guarantee of $5,500,000. As of this writing, it appears as though the pay-per-view number will settle in at between 1,100,000 and 1,200,000. That’s impressive, but might not be enough to give either fighter more than his guarantee.
The most popular figure in the media center during fight week was Mosley’s trainer, Naazim Richardson. Brother Naazim (as he likes to be called) is part philosopher, part story-teller, and all trainer. “Verbally, I can dance with you,” he says.
Richardson dismissed Mayweather’s mouth as “playing to the barbershops” and expressed dismay at the “Money Mayweather” persona. “You can have a guy who’s an idiot,” Brother Naazim elaborated. “But he can look at your car and fix the carburetor in a minute, so you got to respect what he does on the cars. I respect Floyd’s genius as a fighter, but I don’t like the way Floyd handles himself outside the ring sometimes.”
Asked for more, Richardson observed, “This is a battle for greatness. You have fighters. You have champions. And you have guys who are special. These guys are special . . . Shane is tenacious. You can’t be cute against Shane Mosley for twelve rounds . . . I had an old guy [Bernard Hopkins] who fought a young guy from Puerto Rico [Felix Trinidad] who was undefeated and knocking everyone out. We all remember how that one ended . . . Shane has to start fast. When you have a slow start against a fast rabbit; that story about the tortoise and the hare is bullshit. We all know the rabbit is going to win.”
Mosley’s partisans took hope in the fact that this was the first time Mayweather would be facing someone his own size since he fought Oscar De La Hoya three years ago. Ricky Hatton and Juan Manuel Marquez were much smaller men.
Shane voiced optimism, declaring, “Floyd says a lot of things that are out of bounds. But I don’t care about what Floyd says. I care about what I believe and do. He has good hand-speed, but my hand-speed is good, too. I’m just as fast as him, just as slick as him. I’m going to beat him at his game. I won’t spend the whole fight trying to outbox Floyd, but I’ll do it from time to time. My power will be the icing on the cake. I pretty much know his thinking process, what he’s going to do. He’s a counterpuncher. He only strikes when he knows he’s got you beat. I’m not worried about that. Floyd fights fighters at what he thinks is the right time. But this time, he made a mistake.”
Earlier in the week, Naazim Richardson had said, “The opportunities will be few and far between. Shane will have to take advantage of them when they’re there because the window will close pretty quickly.”
Meanwhile, Mosley couldn’t let his hands go when the opportunities were there.
“The muscle twitch fiber goes first,” Richardson had said. “In your head, you’re making the move the way you used to, but the other guy is getting off first.”
By round five, Mosley was tired and discouragement was etched on his face. Mayweather’s jab was like a snake’s tongue and his right hand like the lash of a whip. In the second half of the fight, he beat Shane up.
Mayweather out-landed Mosley 208-to-92 with a 123-to-46 edge in power punches. Those numbers become even more lopsided in light of the fact that thirteen of Mosley’s power punches landed in the second round.
The outcome was determined by the variables that most people thought would dictate the result. Mosley was too old and too slow. Mayweather was too fast and too good. The judges were on target with a 119-109, 119-109, 118-110 verdict.
“I tried,” Shane said afterward. “I couldn’t pull the trigger when I wanted to.”
Mosley has now had fifteen fights since 2001. His record in those fights is 8-and-6 with one no contest.
So . . . How good is Mayweather?
Smoke and mirrors don’t work in the ring. A fighter can be hyped before; he can be hyped afterward. But those three-minute intervals are unscripted and real. During that time, he’s alone, exposed, and fully reliant upon his skills for survival.
Mayweather is a great technical fighter. He wastes no energy. Every move he makes is purposeful. Over his last six fights, he has landed 47 percent of his punches compared to a connect rate of 17 percent for his opponents. That’s a thirty-percent differential; far superior to that of any other active fighter tracked by CompuBox.
Floyd knows his own abilities and has a keen awareness of what each opponent brings to the table. “A good boxing mind,” he says, “means instinct, understanding strategy, being tough, and knowing the right moves to make.” He has all of that and more.
Thomas Hauser
can be reached by email at thauser@rcn.com. His next book about boxing (a novel entitled Waiting for Carver Boyd) will be published in June by JR Books. Hauser says that Waiting for Carver Boyd is “the best pure boxing writing I’ve ever done.”
Source: secondsout.com
In today’s society, Patrick Kehoe observes, “hyperbole tends to replicate itself as an electronic echo, transmitting the desired information as truth logged into infinite memory. Just keep talking, and something aggrandizing will affix to the culture at large.”
One might cite Floyd Mayweather Jr in support of that theory.
Mayweather is an extremely talented fighter who wants to be superstar famous and mega-rich. His record stands at 41-and-0 with 25 knockouts. In recent years, he and Manny Pacquiao have been vying for the right to be called the best pound-for-pound fighter in the world.
Mayweather lives alone in a 23,000-square-foot house in Las Vegas. “When I was growing up,” he says, “seven of us lived in one bedroom. I got a closet now that’s bigger than that bedroom was.”
Floyd has never been married and has four children by two different women. A seven-man security detail that conjures up images of PEDs accompanies him at public functions. He takes pride in his appearance and has no tattoos. “I like the way I look without them,” he notes. “And I’m not a follower.”
Mayweather is obsessed with money to the point of having changed his sobriquet from “Pretty Boy Floyd” to “Money Mayweather.” When asked to name his heroes, he cites Bill Gates, Steve Wynn, Carlos Slim, Mark Cuban, and Warren Buffet; all hugely successful entrepreneurs. He’s often draped in expensive bling and brags about his winnings at Las Vegas sports books. The probability is that, like most gamblers, he loses more than he wins.
Mayweather can be seductively charming. He’s also very much into control. When he says “jump,” the people in his inner circle tend to ask, “How high?”
“I call the shots,” Floyd says. “Everything that goes my way isn’t always the right way. I know that. But I like things the way I like them.”
Asked for more in the way of self-description, Mayweather offers, “I don’t like to be lied to or disrespected. I ain’t never gonna punch a clock for nobody. I was born to be a winner. I’m happy with my life. I don’t hate on people. Some people say I’m an asshole, but I don’t hurt nobody. I got a heart. God must love me, because look where I’m at.”
The public feuding within Mayweather’s family has been referred to as boxing’s version of The Jerry Springer Show.
The most notable estrangement was between Floyd and his father and lasted for nine years. Floyd Sr fought professionally in the 1970s and ‘80s and later spent five-and-a-half years in prison for cocaine trafficking. During the chill between father and son, Floyd Sr lobbied to train fighters who would be facing Floyd Jr and declared, “Floyd thinks he’s bigger than boxing, and he ain’t. No one is bigger than boxing.”
They reconciled in May 2009. Now Floyd Sr says, “My son is bigger than boxing.”
Floyd has been trained by his uncle, Roger Mayweather, for most of his pro career. Roger was imprisoned in 2007 for assaulting his son’s maternal grandmother. Last year, he was indicted on charges of battery and coercion. The police report on the latter incident states that Roger punched a woman named Melissa St. Vil in the ribs several times and wrapped his hands around her throat, causing her to nearly pass out. When the police arrived, St. Vil was coughing and spitting up blood. Trial on these charges is scheduled for later this year.
Floyd Jr. has had his own issues with women and the criminal justice system. In 2002, he plead guilty to two counts of domestic violence. Two years later, he was found guilty on two counts of misdemeanor battery for assaulting two women in a Las Vegas night club.
The other core members of Team Mayweather are Leonard Ellerbe and Al Haymon. Ellerbe is Mayweather’s personal assistant, administrative aide, and business manager. Haymon masterminds Mayweather’s fight contracts.
In most sports, a fighter has to beat the best in order to reach the top. Corrupt world sanctioning organizations and HBO’s outsized marketing power have deprived boxing of that legitimacy.
Within this environment Mayweather has combined careful matchmaking and a cautious ring style with an attention-grabbing persona and superb boxing skills to build a brand name.
Floyd craves celebrity status. He understands what it can do for him financially, not to mention his ego. As Carlo Rotello wrote in the New York Times, “He wants to be bigger than boxing can make him; kind of like what The Joker has in mind in Batman when he says he wants his face on the dollar bill.”
Thus, Mayweather has expended considerable time and energy to turn himself into a magnet for media attention and build his profile outside the ring. In 2007, he appeared on Dancing with the Stars. One year later, he faced off against “Big Show” on WrestleMania. Truth and the business of combat sports rarely go hand in hand, so Floyd can be forgiven for boasting that he was paid US$20,000,000 for his wrestling foray. Golden Boy promoter Richard Schaefer puts the number at “about $3,500,000.” Still, that’s a staggering sum for a one-night acting gig.
The bulwark of Mayweather’s image-making has been HBO’s TV “reality” series, 24/7. The show has been used to promote eight pay-per-view fights, including Floyd’s outings against Oscar De La Hoya, Ricky Hatton, Juan Manuel Marquez, and Shane Mosley.
24/7 has propagated the view that everything Mayweather touches turns to gold and given him a platform to craft his outside-the-ring persona. To some, Floyd symbolizes crass materialism and conspicuous consumption. But as Lou Duva once noted, “Nobody goes into boxing to be loved. You’re in this game to make money.”
Mayweather has made money. His 2007 fight against Oscar De La Hoya engendered a record-breaking 2,446,000 buys. Oscar was the driving force behind that promotion. But Floyd’s seven pay-per-view fights have averaged close to one million buys.
“What’s this fight going to do for my legacy?” Floyd asked before squaring off against Ricky Hatton two-and-a-half years ago. “I got no fake answer. It’s not going to do nothing for my legacy. I’m fighting because I’m a business man. I’m like Bob Barker. ‘Come on down.’ If the price is right, let’s make it happen.”
“People love controversy, and I’m controversial,” Mayweather offers. “If you see Tom Cruise in a movie, that’s not really him. It’s a character he’s playing. Some of what I do in public is me, and some of it is playing a character. You figure out which is which. At the end of the day, it don’t matter whether the media likes me or not. People love me. When I go places, I get a lot of love.”
It might be that Mayweather confuses love with the attention he gets for being a celebrity. Either way, love isn’t central to his image. The pillars of his public persona are money and his ring prowess.
Mayweather’s skill as a fighter is a matter of record, and he’s boastful when it comes to extolling his place in the sweet science. Among his claims: “I’m the face of boxing . . . I can make anybody look like a nobody . . . When fighters are facing me, they’re facing the best. When I’m facing them, I’m just facing fighters . . . Some fighters do different things good. I do everything great . . . There’s no remedy on how to beat Floyd Mayweather. It’s like a difficult math problem that no one can solve . . . I’m the king of the throne. I do what I want to do . . . All roads in boxing lead to Floyd Mayweather.”
Mayweather also maintains, “I’m the reason people don’t watch heavyweights no more. I made the world pay attention to the smaller man in boxing.”
That will come as a surprise to Sugar Ray Leonard, Thomas Hearns, and Roberto Duran, whose internecine warfare captivated the world several decades ago. Fans of Manny Pacquiao might also take issue.
Then there’s the claim, “I’m the best fighter ever. Muhammad Ali? He lost to Leon Spinks, a guy who had seven pro fights. Sugar Ray Robinson? He didn’t win a championship after just one year like I did.”
In truth, Mayweather won his first world title belt after two years, not one. Robinson had to wait six years and fight 75 fights before he was given an opportunity to fight for the championship. In his first 131 fights, Robinson lost once. During that time, he beat Sammy Angott (twice), Fritzie Zivic (twice), Tommy Bell (twice), Kid Gavilan (twice), and Jake LaMotta (five times).
As for Ali; he had the toughest inquisitors of any champion ever and won five of six fights against Sonny Liston, George Foreman, and Joe Frazier. His greatness is untouched by what happened when he got old.
That said; even Mayweather’s critics acknowledge that he’s a formidable fighting machine.
The foundation of Floyd’s success in the ring is preparation. He knows how to do things right in the gym and trains his ass off. Getting ready for a fight, he always pays the price.
“You got to be ready every time you step in the ring,” Floyd says. “You got to be mentally ready before you can do the things you have to do to get ready physically. Then, when you’re physically ready, you can take the final mental steps. The mind tells the body what to do, but it’s all tied together. I’ve never been in a fight where my mind said something and my body wouldn’t do it.”
Those looking for a hole in Mayweather’s discipline point to his penchant for fast food. In response, Floyd notes, “Fast food is better than drinking. Fast food is better than drugs. Nobody works harder than me in the gym. That’s one of the reasons why, in fights, I don’t get tired.”
Mental burn-out is another matter. On October 23, 2007, an uncharacteristically somber Mayweather told the media, “It’s not like it used to be. I think I liked this sport better when I was fighting for free. When you’re young, you don’t have concerns, so you’re not worried about nothing. I mean, you never know what can happen in boxing. A lot of times, you worry about certain things like, if I die in the ring, what’s going to happen with your family? When I didn’t have no kids to live for, I really wasn’t worried about nothing. I was like, I don’t care what goes on. I’m just going there to fight. If I die, so be it. Now that I’m a lot older and a lot wiser, it’s more like I’ve got something to live for. I’ve got some people who love me. So that worries me a lot, because I feel like my job is like a cop. One shot can end your whole career.”
Seven weeks later, Mayweather knocked out Ricky Hatton. Then, on June 6, 2008, he announced that he was “permanently retiring from boxing.”
“I needed a rest, physically and mentally,” Floyd says. “I was burned out.”
Few people in boxing took Mayweather’s retirement seriously. The assumption was that he’d be back in the ring, sooner rather than later.
The return came against Juan Manuel Marquez on September 19, 2009. Maybe Floyd missed the spotlight and the competition. Just as likely, he needed money. On July 3, 2009, the Associated Press reported that the Internal Revenue Service had filed tax liens against him totaling US$6,170,000 and that he owed another $193,000 pursuant to a New Jersey Superior Court judgment.
There were also persistent rumors, denied by Leonard Ellerbe, that Floyd had been swindled out of millions of dollars in a financial scam.
Equally important, Mayweather thought at the time of his retirement that he could make a fortune without boxing; through endorsements, investments, and business ventures. That was easier said than done.
“He wasn’t broke,” Floyd Sr says. “But he had a money problem.”
Against Marquez, Mayweather showed that he was still a superb fighter. The one sour note in the proceedings came when Floyd blew off the agreed-upon contract weight of 144 pounds (nine pounds above Juan Manuel’s previous high) and weighed in at 146 pounds. The contract was hastily amended. Mayweather paid Marquez an additional US$600,000 out of his reported $10,000,000 guarantee, and the bout took place as scheduled. Floyd won a lopsided decision.
Eight weeks after Mayweather decisioned Marquez, Manny Pacquiao annihilated Miguel Cotto. That set the stage for Mayweather-Pacquiao, which, it was presumed, would be the largest-grossing fight in boxing history.
Not.
Mayweather-Pacquiao fell through to the dismay of the boxing community. Depending on one’s point of view, that was because Floyd made unreasonable demands with regard to PED testing that he knew would interfere with Manny’s training (a/k/a “the Pacquiao avoidance program”) or Pacquiao had something to hide.
Either way, Floyd needed a name opponent to counterbalance the fallout from Mayweather-Pacquiao falling out. Meanwhile, Shane Mosley was scheduled to fight Andre Berto (who, like Mayweather, is managed by Al Haymon) on January 30th.
On January 12th, Berto’s ancestral home of Haiti was devastated by a catastrophic earthquake. Six days later, citing concern for members of his family and the fact that he was mentally and physically exhausted, Andre withdrew from the Mosley fight. That same day, Richard Schaefer of Golden Boy (which promotes Shane and co-promotes Mayweather) announced that he was working to put Mayweather-Mosley together for May 1st.
A decade ago, Mosley and Roy Jones vied for pound-for-pound honors, although the consensus was that Jones reigned. Then Shane lost to Vernon Forrest and the debate ended.
Mosley is now thirty-eight years old and had fought only twice since 2007. In one of those fights, he struggled on old legs against Ricardo Mayorga before knocking the Nicaraguan out in the twelfth round. Then, on January 24, 2009, Shane scored an impressive knockout victory over Antonio Margarito to capture the WBA welterweight crown.
Margarito-Mosley was the platform on which Mayweather-Mosley was built.
Shane has a name. Unlike many elite fighters, he really will fight anyone. And Mayweather felt that beating Mosley convincingly would legitimize his own claim to greatness.
Shane had the same agenda as Mayweather, but hoped for a different outcome. “Everybody has Manny Pacquiao and Mayweather on their mind,” he said. “I’m going to make sure that they know that I’m here. I want to make a point that I’m the best welterweight fighter right now. I’m not just going to talk about it. I want to be about it. There’s no welterweight out there who can beat me.”
The marketing theme for Mayweather-Mosley was “who R U picking?” That rang a bit hollow, since virtually everyone in the know was picking Mayweather. The odds opened at 3-to-1 and rose as high as 9-to-2 before settling at 7-to-2.
At the March 2nd kick-off press conference in New York, Schaefer proclaimed, “This is one of the best fights in the history of boxing” and predicted three million pay-per-view buys. Later in the promotion, when Mayweather was referenced during a tele-conference call as “the greatest fighter in boxing today,” Schaefer corrected, “Not of today; the greatest of all time.”
One hopes that, in his previous career as a banker, Richard fulfilled his fiduciary obligation to clients with more acumen and/or candor.
Mayweather has the habit of demeaning his opponent in the build-up to a fight, and Mayweather-Mosley was no exception. After calling Shane a “dumb motherfucker,” Floyd opined, “He’s desperate, so he has no choice but to fight me. His career is coming to an end; and before he goes, he wants that last big payday. I don’t really like to speak on people’s personal business, because his personal life is his personal life. But he just went through a divorce, and sometimes going through a hard divorce can be very excruciating. It can cost a lot of money.”
“This is our legacy on who’s the best fighter,” Shane responded. “It’s a challenge that I’m ready to take. It’s nothing personal. I’m ready to go into the history books as the guy to beat Floyd Mayweather and the guy that beats everybody out there. The last man standing; I’m into that. I don’t bark. I bite.”
But when pressed, Shane added, “He wants to talk about my suit. He’s talking about the curls in my hair and if I’m getting a nose job. Is he gay or something? You know, all of these different things about my personal stuff. I mean, you’ve got to watch out. There’s different things that don’t sound right.”
Then there was the issue of performance-enhancing drugs.
The contract for Mayweather-Mosley gave Floyd the right to dictate the terms of drug testing. Anything he wanted would be put in place as long as each fighter was subject to the same testing requirements.
Mayweather might be sincere in his claim that he wants elaborate PED testing for all of his fights as a way of ensuring “a level playing field for clean athletes.” Or he might be avoiding a showdown with Manny Pacquiao (whose phobia for needles is genuine). Let’s give Floyd the benefit of the doubt on that one.
Golden Boy appears to be less committed to PED testing. How else to explain the fact that it never raised the issue in conjunction with Hopkins-Jones II, Haye-Ruiz, or any of the other high-profile fights that it promoted recently?
Regardless, drug testing was in place for Mayweather-Mosley. During a March 18th conference call, Travis Tygart (CEO of the United States Anti-Doping Agency) advised the media, “Both athletes have agreed to USADA’s testing protocols, including blood and urine testing, which is unannounced, which is anywhere and anytime. There is no limit to the number of tests that we can complete on these boxers. Any positive tests will be published following a thorough legal process provided under our protocols.”
Initially, Tygart said that a positive test could result in a two-year suspension of the athlete and cancellation of the fight. But it was later acknowledged that punishment could come only after “a full legal process.” That would include, among other things, an arbitration proceeding before the American Arbitration Association to be conducted under restrictions of confidentiality, which would delay punitive action until after the fight. Tygart also admitted, “We have no direct control to enforce compliance.” In other words, the Nevada State Athletic Commission would have to impose the suspension.
Judd Burstein (Mosley’s lawyer) elaborated on that theme, saying, “There is no provision one way or the other in the contract for public disclosure of the test results; although I would think that the parties would be bound to report a positive test result to the Nevada commission.”
Meanwhile, Mosley was in the embarrassing position of having to acknowledge yet again that he’d used banned performance enhancing drugs prior to his 2003 victory over Oscar De La Hoya. That much was clear from Shane’s own testimony before a grand jury that investigated BALCO and its founder, Victor Conte.
Mosley claims that he took the drugs unknowingly, although circumstances suggest otherwise. He also notes that he never tested positive for PEDS and, during an April 21st conference call, told the media, “I don’t feel that I should be condemned for something that I never tested positive for.”
Of course, one reason that athletes sought Conte’s services was because he put them on regimens that would allow them to avoid tested positive for PEDs.
Mayweather, for his part, expressed the view that Mosley knew what he was putting into his body before he fought De La Hoya. “Marion Jones lied under oath and she went to jail,” Floyd trumpeted. “So what’s supposed to happen to Shane? We know what he’s done. He lied under oath.”
Then again; Mayweather repeatedly ducked questions about his own use of xylocaine to ease the pain in his hands during fights. Xylocaine is now legal under the rules of the Nevada State Athletic Commission if administered under the supervision of a doctor. That wasn’t always the case. USADA did not test the fighters for xylocaine.
When fight week arrived, Team Mayweather was in full bloom. Uncle Roger dismissed the media with the thought, “You guys don’t know shit about boxing so it don’t make no difference what you say.” Floyd did his part for good media relations by refusing to attend the HBO fighter meeting on Friday and declaring “I created 24/7.”
Floyd also proclaimed, “I’m doing Shane Mosley a favor. I’m letting him share the ring with greatness . . . Shane Mosley is an HBO fighter. Floyd Mayweather is a mega-superstar . . . He’s good at what he do. I’m great at what I do . . . Shane has checker pieces on the board. I’m playing with chess pieces. Most fighters have checkers pieces. And if they have a few chess pieces, they can’t move them as well as me . . . My game plan is to be Floyd Mayweather.”
One refreshing aspect to the promotion was that the sanctioning bodies were largely ignored. Mosley was the WBA welterweight champion. But Mayweather refused to pay the WBA sanctioning fee, noting,” There should be just one belt in each division. The way things are now, anyone can get to be a champion.” Shane followed suit on the theory that, if he lost, the title would be declared vacant; and if he won, he wouldn’t need the WBA belt to make money.
The WBC tried to get into the act by offering its “diamond championship” belt to the winner for a one-percent sanctioning fee. That was rejected as a bad joke, after which WBC president Jose Sulaiman offered the belt “at cost.” That offer was turned down on the theory that Mayweather-Mosley would be a happier occasion with $45,000 less in expenses and without a WBC presence.
Ticket sales were a bit disappointing. Ultimately, the attendance on fight night was 15,117, which meant that a thousand tickets went unsold. But during fight week, the buzz was that Mayweather-Mosley would do huge pay-per-view numbers. HBO believed that Floyd had developed an “anchor fan base” among urban African-Americans. And Mayweather-Marquez (which drew poorly at the gate) had engendered 1,080,000 pay-per-view buys.
No one took Schaefer seriously at the final pre-fight press conference when he said, “Our goal is to break four million buys.” But 1,500,000 seemed like a realistic number, which would have pushed Mayweather-Mosley past De La Hoya-Trinidad into second place on the all-time buy list for non-heavyweight fights.
Mayweather (who had a US$22,500,000 guarantee plus an upside) was telling people, “I should walk away from this with about sixty million.” Mosley had a guarantee of $5,500,000. As of this writing, it appears as though the pay-per-view number will settle in at between 1,100,000 and 1,200,000. That’s impressive, but might not be enough to give either fighter more than his guarantee.
The most popular figure in the media center during fight week was Mosley’s trainer, Naazim Richardson. Brother Naazim (as he likes to be called) is part philosopher, part story-teller, and all trainer. “Verbally, I can dance with you,” he says.
Richardson dismissed Mayweather’s mouth as “playing to the barbershops” and expressed dismay at the “Money Mayweather” persona. “You can have a guy who’s an idiot,” Brother Naazim elaborated. “But he can look at your car and fix the carburetor in a minute, so you got to respect what he does on the cars. I respect Floyd’s genius as a fighter, but I don’t like the way Floyd handles himself outside the ring sometimes.”
Asked for more, Richardson observed, “This is a battle for greatness. You have fighters. You have champions. And you have guys who are special. These guys are special . . . Shane is tenacious. You can’t be cute against Shane Mosley for twelve rounds . . . I had an old guy [Bernard Hopkins] who fought a young guy from Puerto Rico [Felix Trinidad] who was undefeated and knocking everyone out. We all remember how that one ended . . . Shane has to start fast. When you have a slow start against a fast rabbit; that story about the tortoise and the hare is bullshit. We all know the rabbit is going to win.”
Mosley’s partisans took hope in the fact that this was the first time Mayweather would be facing someone his own size since he fought Oscar De La Hoya three years ago. Ricky Hatton and Juan Manuel Marquez were much smaller men.
Shane voiced optimism, declaring, “Floyd says a lot of things that are out of bounds. But I don’t care about what Floyd says. I care about what I believe and do. He has good hand-speed, but my hand-speed is good, too. I’m just as fast as him, just as slick as him. I’m going to beat him at his game. I won’t spend the whole fight trying to outbox Floyd, but I’ll do it from time to time. My power will be the icing on the cake. I pretty much know his thinking process, what he’s going to do. He’s a counterpuncher. He only strikes when he knows he’s got you beat. I’m not worried about that. Floyd fights fighters at what he thinks is the right time. But this time, he made a mistake.”When Mosley was young, he radiated energy and strength. During fight week, that no longer seemed to be the case. At a Thursday sit-down with a group of writers, his face was puffy. There was no sparkle in his eyes. He looked tired. At age thirty-eight, he was the oldest opponent that Mayweather has ever faced.
“As you get older, your body changes,” Shane told the writers. “Things stop working the way they used to. You can’t work out all day and come back and train the same way the next day. You can’t spar every day.”
That reinforced the view that boxing has seen the best it’s going to see of Mosley. At the weigh-in on Friday, he looked good. But Mayweather had a glow about him.
“Mosley can’t beat me,” Mayweather said. “He beat Margarito. So what? Margarito got beat by Paul Williams. Margarito got beat by Daniel Santos. Margarito lost six times. Mosley lost five times. Mosley got out-boxed by Cotto. Mosley is dreaming when he says he can outbox me. He may be stronger when it comes to lifting weights. But this is boxing, not a weightlifting contest. I got too much for Mosley to compete with me.”
On fight night, Chris Brown sang the National Anthem. Given Mayweather’s history of criminally abusing women, it wasn’t a wise choice. Last year, Brown was charged with felony assault against his then-girlfriend Rihanna. He pled guilty and was sentenced to five years probation plus six months of community service.
Mosley was the first man in the ring. Mayweather kept him waiting before making a well-choreographed entrance punctuated by loud simulated gun-shots.
Round one of the fight was even and tactically fought. Fifty-five seconds into round two, Mosley did what he wasn’t supposed to be able to do. He whacked Mayweather with a hard right hand that had Floyd holding on.
Earlier in the week, Naazim Richardson had said, “The opportunities will be few and far between. Shane will have to take advantage of them when they’re there because the window will close pretty quickly.”
The window closed. When Mayweather’s head cleared, he didn’t run. He fought back. From that point on, he was the aggressor, controlling when and where exchanges took place. When Shane got inside, Floyd roughed him up, pushing down hard on the back of Mosley’s head and neck and using his elbows to maximum advantage. He out-boxed Shane and he outfought Shane.
Meanwhile, Mosley couldn’t let his hands go when the opportunities were there.“The muscle twitch fiber goes first,” Richardson had said. “In your head, you’re making the move the way you used to, but the other guy is getting off first.”
By round five, Mosley was tired and discouragement was etched on his face. Mayweather’s jab was like a snake’s tongue and his right hand like the lash of a whip. In the second half of the fight, he beat Shane up.
Mayweather out-landed Mosley 208-to-92 with a 123-to-46 edge in power punches. Those numbers become even more lopsided in light of the fact that thirteen of Mosley’s power punches landed in the second round.
The outcome was determined by the variables that most people thought would dictate the result. Mosley was too old and too slow. Mayweather was too fast and too good. The judges were on target with a 119-109, 119-109, 118-110 verdict.
“I tried,” Shane said afterward. “I couldn’t pull the trigger when I wanted to.”
Mosley has now had fifteen fights since 2001. His record in those fights is 8-and-6 with one no contest.
So . . . How good is Mayweather?
Smoke and mirrors don’t work in the ring. A fighter can be hyped before; he can be hyped afterward. But those three-minute intervals are unscripted and real. During that time, he’s alone, exposed, and fully reliant upon his skills for survival.
Mayweather is a great technical fighter. He wastes no energy. Every move he makes is purposeful. Over his last six fights, he has landed 47 percent of his punches compared to a connect rate of 17 percent for his opponents. That’s a thirty-percent differential; far superior to that of any other active fighter tracked by CompuBox. In the ring, Mayweather is risk-averse. “You got to be cautious in boxing,” he says. “I don’t have to be bloody and knocked down and getting beat up to prove that I’m great. There’s something greater than that, and that’s not getting hit. There’s nothing cool about taking punishment. What’s cool is dishing it out.”
But Floyd can fight rough. Anyone who doubts that should look at DVDs of his bouts against Mosley and Ricky Hatton.
“In the ring, I’m the predator; never the prey,” he says. “I’ve always felt that way. You need killer instinct to be a great fighter, like an animal in the wilderness.”
Mayweather has the respect of his fellow fighters. They know how good he is. It would be nice if he showed them more respect in return. Right now, he’s a great athlete, but not a great sportsman. And more important, if Floyd wants to prove himself in the eyes of history, he’ll have to be more consistent in seeking out the best available competition.
When people talk about why Sugar Ray Robinson was great, they don’t mention his win over an aging Henry Armstrong. No one says that Muhammad Ali was great because he beat an elderly Archie Moore. Robinson and Ali proved their greatness against the toughest opponents imaginable, as did Sugar Ray Leonard by conquering Wilfredo Benitez, Thomas Hearns, Roberto Duran, and Marvin Hagler.
Mayweather hasn’t had the inquisitors that those men had. He doesn’t seem to want them. That might be a good marketing decision, but it makes it harder to consider Floyd an all-time great.
History judges fighters by what they did in the ring; not by whether they were on Dancing with the Stars and how much money they made.
Thomas Hauser
can be reached by email at thauser@rcn.com. His next book about boxing (a novel entitled Waiting for Carver Boyd) will be published in June by JR Books. Hauser says that Waiting for Carver Boyd is “the best pure boxing writing I’ve ever done.” Source: secondsout.com
Landslide looms: Manny Pacquiao says I dropped atomic bomb on foe! -- Examiner
By Michael Marley, Examiner.com
MICHAEL MARLEY'S PHILLIPINE DIARY
PART 20, FROM INSIDE THE MANNY PACQUIAO MANSION ON ELECTION DAY ACROSS THE PHILIPPINES
NEWS UPDATE: 8:27 PM - I am at Manny Pacquiao's politcal bunker, his personal "Pentagon" in Gensan, with his chief campaign brain, local businessman and friend Zaldy Du.
Early returns have Pacman ahead 8,600 votes to 2,0000 and, more importantly, the fighter seems to be smashing opponent Roy Chiongbian in all seven of the voting areas.
Landslide victory looms!
(Slight disclaimer: All my reports are coming indirectly from Manny Pacquiao political partisans so keep this in mind in case this turns out to be irrational exuberance by Pacman and his cronies...)
BREAKING NEWS FROM INSIDE THE MANNY MANSION
UPDATED AT 5:56 PM PHILIPPINE TIME WITH POLLS EXPECTED TO CLOSE AROUND 7 PM
LATEST UPDATE: Manny Pacquiao's pollwatchers have informed the fighter by telephone from Sarangani that he is "winning by a landslide" among the 56,000 potential voters in the key community of Glan.
Pacquiao is also counting on heavy victories in Malugnon, Alabel and Kiamba.
Glan has 85 precincts and is the largest voting area in the province.
"If they are right on Glan," promoter Bob Arum said, "I think it is a huge victory for Manny."
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Manny Pacquiao is smelling victory just like in one of his boxing matches.
"I am getting good reports, all good reports," Pacquiao said. "I am making history here."
Pacquiao just said he dropped "an atomic bomb" on favored opponent Roy Chiongbian on Saturday and Sunday nights.
I pressed Manny for details on his late strategy but he refused to answer directly.
At about 5 pm, Pacquiao came into a large room where many of his photos and fight posters adorn the wall.
In between directing political advisers and handlers over his walkie talkie, where his handle is "Dragon 1," Pacman said he was growing more confident of gaining a victory over Congressional opponent Roy Chiongbian.
The fighter also laughed about a second hand report or rumor that foe Chiongbian was feeling that he would be beaten at the polls.
"They are saying that even if beat Chiongbean,I will remain Chiongbian's idol," Pacman said, smiling brightly.
Then, showing he was being sarcastic, Pacquiao dramatically rolled his eyes.
The reference, of course, is to Pacquiao's comments to beaten and bloodied Oscar de lay Hoya when he made the Golden Boy quit on his stool.
Queen Elizabeth, the boxer's 16 month old daughter, sat on his lap for a while as he spoke to a scrum of about eight reporters gathered inside his home.
I asked Pacman if the election was more nervewracking than a big fight.
He smiled and said, "I am confident like in a boxing match."
Pacquiao said he was a bit surprised at the exuerberance of many of his supporters.
"Some people are excited to vote for me," Pacman said.
GENERAL SANTOS CITY—Congressional hopeful Manny Pacquiao phoned his adviser Michael Koncz minutes ago from his house in Kiamba, Sarangani Province.
Pacquiao asked Koncz if he and promoter Bob Arum are excited about the Pinoy Idol's possible electoral victory Monday night.
“I am excited, so is Bob,” Koncz said, sitting on the patio beside the boxing glove shaped swimming pool as tropical strength rains poured down.
“Bob wants to be the first to raise your hand in victory as a Congressman,” Koncz said.
The call came in about 3:30 pm, which is unusual since, when not in training for a fight, Pacman is about as nocturnal as Dracula.
Basketball, poker and billiards often occupy hour after nightime hour for the fighter when he is not under the domain and strict controls of trainer Freddie Roach.
Pacman and wife Jinkee voted early Monday morning at an elementary school in the rural, improverished province where presumably the world champion boxer voted for his party ally Manny Villar for president and for himself over billionaire Roy Chiongbian for the Congressional seat.
Today being the 10th wedding anniversary of the fighter and his leading lady, I guess we can presume that she also voted for Candidate Number 2, as opposed to Candidate Number 1, his rival for the three year term in the lower house which sits in Manila.
I am one of a handful of American, British and Pilipino journalists privileged to sit within the high walls of the Manny mansion in the Barangay Lagao section of Gensan.
I was left behind by promoter Uncle Bob Arum and the rest of the gang but I recovered my geographic fumble by getting a 50 pesos (one US dollar) ride on a bright red tricycle (a motorcycle with a tin can style passenger compartment attached thereto).
I figured the cramped ride should hold me in good stead for my upcoming, 16 hour flight in steerage class on Continental Airlines from Hong Kong to Newark. (Hint, hint, Continental/United bosses, isn';t the White Gorilla due for a nice, complimentary upgrade or do I have to go the Lunesta 3 route?)
Speaking of sleeping, we can all do that now as the final results in Sarangani are not expected for another two or three hours.
Chiongbian and the old ways or Pacquiao and some new ideas?
We shall know the verdict of the electorate soon. There continues to be an undercurrent of feeling by many that Manny should stick to what he knows and what he excels at, being the Pound for Pound king of the ring.
Both sides accuse the other of bribing voters, buying their ballots.
I think this is really overstated.
I haven't seen or heard of actually vote buying.
Now vote renting, that is another story.
And so we go into the final rounds in Sarangani...
(mlcmarley@aol.com)
Source: examiner.com
MICHAEL MARLEY'S PHILLIPINE DIARY
PART 20, FROM INSIDE THE MANNY PACQUIAO MANSION ON ELECTION DAY ACROSS THE PHILIPPINES
NEWS UPDATE: 8:27 PM - I am at Manny Pacquiao's politcal bunker, his personal "Pentagon" in Gensan, with his chief campaign brain, local businessman and friend Zaldy Du.
Early returns have Pacman ahead 8,600 votes to 2,0000 and, more importantly, the fighter seems to be smashing opponent Roy Chiongbian in all seven of the voting areas.
Landslide victory looms!
(Slight disclaimer: All my reports are coming indirectly from Manny Pacquiao political partisans so keep this in mind in case this turns out to be irrational exuberance by Pacman and his cronies...)
BREAKING NEWS FROM INSIDE THE MANNY MANSION
UPDATED AT 5:56 PM PHILIPPINE TIME WITH POLLS EXPECTED TO CLOSE AROUND 7 PM
LATEST UPDATE: Manny Pacquiao's pollwatchers have informed the fighter by telephone from Sarangani that he is "winning by a landslide" among the 56,000 potential voters in the key community of Glan.
Pacquiao is also counting on heavy victories in Malugnon, Alabel and Kiamba.
Glan has 85 precincts and is the largest voting area in the province.
"If they are right on Glan," promoter Bob Arum said, "I think it is a huge victory for Manny."
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Manny Pacquiao is smelling victory just like in one of his boxing matches.
"I am getting good reports, all good reports," Pacquiao said. "I am making history here."
Pacquiao just said he dropped "an atomic bomb" on favored opponent Roy Chiongbian on Saturday and Sunday nights.
I pressed Manny for details on his late strategy but he refused to answer directly.
At about 5 pm, Pacquiao came into a large room where many of his photos and fight posters adorn the wall.
In between directing political advisers and handlers over his walkie talkie, where his handle is "Dragon 1," Pacman said he was growing more confident of gaining a victory over Congressional opponent Roy Chiongbian.
The fighter also laughed about a second hand report or rumor that foe Chiongbian was feeling that he would be beaten at the polls.
"They are saying that even if beat Chiongbean,I will remain Chiongbian's idol," Pacman said, smiling brightly.
Then, showing he was being sarcastic, Pacquiao dramatically rolled his eyes.
The reference, of course, is to Pacquiao's comments to beaten and bloodied Oscar de lay Hoya when he made the Golden Boy quit on his stool.
Queen Elizabeth, the boxer's 16 month old daughter, sat on his lap for a while as he spoke to a scrum of about eight reporters gathered inside his home.
I asked Pacman if the election was more nervewracking than a big fight.
He smiled and said, "I am confident like in a boxing match."
Pacquiao said he was a bit surprised at the exuerberance of many of his supporters.
"Some people are excited to vote for me," Pacman said.
GENERAL SANTOS CITY—Congressional hopeful Manny Pacquiao phoned his adviser Michael Koncz minutes ago from his house in Kiamba, Sarangani Province.
Pacquiao asked Koncz if he and promoter Bob Arum are excited about the Pinoy Idol's possible electoral victory Monday night.
“I am excited, so is Bob,” Koncz said, sitting on the patio beside the boxing glove shaped swimming pool as tropical strength rains poured down.
“Bob wants to be the first to raise your hand in victory as a Congressman,” Koncz said.
The call came in about 3:30 pm, which is unusual since, when not in training for a fight, Pacman is about as nocturnal as Dracula.
Basketball, poker and billiards often occupy hour after nightime hour for the fighter when he is not under the domain and strict controls of trainer Freddie Roach.
Pacman and wife Jinkee voted early Monday morning at an elementary school in the rural, improverished province where presumably the world champion boxer voted for his party ally Manny Villar for president and for himself over billionaire Roy Chiongbian for the Congressional seat.
Today being the 10th wedding anniversary of the fighter and his leading lady, I guess we can presume that she also voted for Candidate Number 2, as opposed to Candidate Number 1, his rival for the three year term in the lower house which sits in Manila.
I am one of a handful of American, British and Pilipino journalists privileged to sit within the high walls of the Manny mansion in the Barangay Lagao section of Gensan.
I was left behind by promoter Uncle Bob Arum and the rest of the gang but I recovered my geographic fumble by getting a 50 pesos (one US dollar) ride on a bright red tricycle (a motorcycle with a tin can style passenger compartment attached thereto).
I figured the cramped ride should hold me in good stead for my upcoming, 16 hour flight in steerage class on Continental Airlines from Hong Kong to Newark. (Hint, hint, Continental/United bosses, isn';t the White Gorilla due for a nice, complimentary upgrade or do I have to go the Lunesta 3 route?)
Speaking of sleeping, we can all do that now as the final results in Sarangani are not expected for another two or three hours.
Chiongbian and the old ways or Pacquiao and some new ideas?
We shall know the verdict of the electorate soon. There continues to be an undercurrent of feeling by many that Manny should stick to what he knows and what he excels at, being the Pound for Pound king of the ring.
Both sides accuse the other of bribing voters, buying their ballots.
I think this is really overstated.
I haven't seen or heard of actually vote buying.
Now vote renting, that is another story.
And so we go into the final rounds in Sarangani...
(mlcmarley@aol.com)
Source: examiner.com
Bullets fly but voting proceeds: Manny Pacquiao gets two votes early on -- Examiner.com
By Michael Marley, Examiner.com
MICHAEL MARLEY'S PHILIPPINE DIARY, PART 19:
FIVE KILLED, SEVEN WOUNDED DAY BEFORE, THEY CALL THIS QUIET; BOB ARUM PREDICTS CHARGE MANNY PACQUIAO TO ROLL INTO CONGRESSIONAL SPOT FROM SARANGANI; COMMUNIST PARTY REBELS SAY THEY WON'T GO AFTER AUTOMATED VOTING MACHINES...PHOTO OF WHITE GORILLA MICHAEL MARLEY CONSUMING THE DREADED BALUT
KIMBA, SARAGANI—They showed an orange clad (official party color) Manny Pacquiao live on national TV early this Monday morning, presumably voting for his ally Manny Villar for president and for himself for Congress from this mainly rural province which hugs the coastline on the road to Davao.
He and wife, Jinkee, had to wait in line like other voters at an elementary school on this day, their 10th wedding anniversary and hopefully the day Pacman evens his political record at 1-1. He tried for Congress from General Santos City in 2007 but lost by a 60-40 percent margin to slick Darlene Antonino-Custodio.
It is guesstimiated by those in his inner circle that Pacquiao is spending $2 million dollars on this electoral foray.
He made about $12 million for his March 13 victory over Joshua Clottey and has a possible $40 million payday looming against Floyd Mayweather Jr.
Don't worry about Manny's finances although his gambling habits do concern some of his closest friends.
Pacman likes to bet on poker, billiards, NBA games and his beloved sabong, meaning cockfighting. In fact, I visited his fighting rooster farm on Sunday.
The breaking news is that the Pacquiao Political Team has filed formal charges of vote buying against their rival, billionaire Roy Chiongbian. For their part, the Chiongbian allies claim that it is Pacman's crew that has turned this into a PPV, pay per vote, election.
Source: examiner.com
MICHAEL MARLEY'S PHILIPPINE DIARY, PART 19:
FIVE KILLED, SEVEN WOUNDED DAY BEFORE, THEY CALL THIS QUIET; BOB ARUM PREDICTS CHARGE MANNY PACQUIAO TO ROLL INTO CONGRESSIONAL SPOT FROM SARANGANI; COMMUNIST PARTY REBELS SAY THEY WON'T GO AFTER AUTOMATED VOTING MACHINES...PHOTO OF WHITE GORILLA MICHAEL MARLEY CONSUMING THE DREADED BALUT
KIMBA, SARAGANI—They showed an orange clad (official party color) Manny Pacquiao live on national TV early this Monday morning, presumably voting for his ally Manny Villar for president and for himself for Congress from this mainly rural province which hugs the coastline on the road to Davao.
He and wife, Jinkee, had to wait in line like other voters at an elementary school on this day, their 10th wedding anniversary and hopefully the day Pacman evens his political record at 1-1. He tried for Congress from General Santos City in 2007 but lost by a 60-40 percent margin to slick Darlene Antonino-Custodio.
It is guesstimiated by those in his inner circle that Pacquiao is spending $2 million dollars on this electoral foray.
He made about $12 million for his March 13 victory over Joshua Clottey and has a possible $40 million payday looming against Floyd Mayweather Jr.
Don't worry about Manny's finances although his gambling habits do concern some of his closest friends.
Pacman likes to bet on poker, billiards, NBA games and his beloved sabong, meaning cockfighting. In fact, I visited his fighting rooster farm on Sunday.
The breaking news is that the Pacquiao Political Team has filed formal charges of vote buying against their rival, billionaire Roy Chiongbian. For their part, the Chiongbian allies claim that it is Pacman's crew that has turned this into a PPV, pay per vote, election.
Source: examiner.com
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