By Robert Morales, Los Angeles Daily News
Manny Pacquiao took apart Miguel Cotto with ferocious relentlessness, stopping Cotto in the 12th round Nov. 14 at MGM Grand in Las Vegas.
His promoter, Bob Arum, referred to Pacquiao in the post-fight news conference as the Tiger Woods of boxing. A reporter shouted out that no, Tiger Woods is the Manny Pacquiao of golf.
The victory gave Pacquiao success in seven weight classes - five sanctioned world titles and two people's championships. The record for sanctioned world titles is six, held by Oscar De La Hoya. Floyd Mayweather Jr. has five.
Ironically, they are two of the five defendants - the others are Floyd Mayweather Sr., Roger Mayweather and Golden Boy Promotions CEO Richard Schaefer - named in the defamation lawsuit filed by Pacquiao this week in Las Vegas.
Not that jealousy has anything to do with either insinuating that Pacquiao might be using performance-enhancing drugs, as they are not alone in their suspicion of Pacquiao.
Two former world champions - Paulie Malignaggi and Kermit Cintron - have wondered if Pacquiao is dirty. Others - such as Hall of Fame fighter Carlos Palomino - have said of the Olympic-style drug testing demanded by Mayweather for his March 13 fight with Pacquiao that appears dead, "If this guy has nothing to hide, why not do it?"
In watching Pacquiao's performance against Cotto, it was amazing to see how hard Pacquiao was punching and how well he absorbed the powerful punches of Cotto. Even when Pacquiao was clobbered on the chin, he was undeterred.
By this time, Mayweather Sr. had already accused Pacquiao of doping. Yet, reporters weren't whispering at the aforementioned post-fight news conference that Pacquiao must be.
Just because Pacquiao's accomplishments are virtually unheard of, does not mean he is guilty of wrongdoing. It could be he is just that athlete who comes along once every hundred years.
Pacquiao started his pro career at 106 pounds, so it is rather mind-boggling that he is so good in the 147-pound welterweight division, in which he has beaten both De La Hoya and Cotto.
But Pacquiao was 16 when he turned pro in 1995 in the Philippines.
Mayweather was 16 when he won his first National Golden Gloves championship at, you guessed it, 106 pounds.
Mayweather won the third of his Golden Gloves titles at 19, at 125 pounds. Two weeks before his 20th birthday, Pacquiao won his first major pro title in the 112-pound flyweight division. He had only grown by six pounds. But bodies do develop at different rates.
Mayweather has twice weighed in at 147 pounds and as high as 150 for his 2007 fight against De La Hoya. Pacquiao's highest weigh-in was 144 pounds against Cotto. He weighed only 142 for De La Hoya, five pounds shy of the welterweight limit.
We're not naive. Anything is possible. Pacquiao has retained his punch while moving up like perhaps no other. Power is the first thing that goes when climbing the ladder. Also, he fought as low as 129 pounds in March 2008, just 20 months before weighed in at 144 for Cotto.
It just seems that the American credo of innocent until proven guilty fell by the wayside here. Pacquiao never has tested positive for anything illegal.
Yet, his reputation has taken the sort of hit from which it will never fully recover. From now on, Pacquiao will be looked upon by some as one who might have indulged in unsavory methods for fame and unprecedented achievements.
De La Hoya's Golden Boy company represented Mayweather in the negotiations for the Pacquiao fight. De La Hoya didn't help matters when he wrote in his Ring Magazine online blog that the punches by Fernando Vargas, "Sugar" Shane Mosley and Pacquiao "felt the same," an intimation Pacquiao could have been juiced when he stopped De La Hoya after eight rounds in December 2008.
Vargas and Mosley were both on steroids in their fights against De La Hoya in 2002 and 2003, respectively.
That was interesting coming from De La Hoya because he said after his loss to Pacquiao that he never felt Pacquiao's punches.
Another thing: Zab Judah wanted Mosley to take an independent blood test to prove he was clean ahead of their scheduled May 2008 fight that was canceled when Judah was injured.
Mosley is promoted by Golden Boy, and Schaefer said then he would not allow Mosley - who agreed to the test - to submit to anything other than what the Nevada commission mandates. Schaefer said Mosley did not need to be treated like a cheat.
It's easy to say Manny Pacquiao should agree to Olympic-style drug-testing if he's clean. It's just as easy to say he shouldn't have to become the first professional boxer to do so just because he is so extraordinarily destructive in the ring and, because, unlike others who have moved up in weight, his body has remained ripped with muscles. As has Mayweather's.
If boxing wants to adapt Olympic-style testing, that's great - as long as it applies to everyone. Not just the top pound-for-pound fighter on the planet.
Good, bad and tragic permeated sport in 2009
Just a few thoughts on a year that was filled with the good, the bad and the tragic:
Any Fighter of the Year award must go to Manny Pacquiao.
Pacquiao knocked out Ricky Hatton in the second round in May, literally putting Hatton to sleep before his head hitting the canvas awakened him.
Pacquiao followed that up with a serious November beatdown of welterweight champion Miguel Cotto, who was stopped in the 12th round of a fight he was losing handily.
Trainer of the Year is Pacquiao's chief second, Freddie Roach.
The continued improvement Pacquiao showed under Roach's guidance was very noteworthy.
Roach has turned the once wild-swinging and vulnerable Pacquiao into a controlled force of destruction.
There are several solid candidates for Fight of the Year. The junior welterweight bout between Victor Ortiz and Marcos Maidana in June at Staples Center was incredible.
Maidana was down three times, Ortiz twice, with Maidana winning a sixth-round technical knockout.
The middleweight fight between Paul Williams and Sergio Martinez last month in Atlantic City - won by Williams via majority decision - was outstanding.
Neither topped the February slugfest between Juan Manuel Marquez and Juan Diaz.
The fight was a push heading into the ninth round, with one scorecard even and each fighter holding a two-point advantage on one of the others.
Marquez stopped Diaz in the ninth round.
If there were such thing as a Most Impressive Victory award, it would go to Pomona's "Sugar" Shane Mosley and his ninth-round stoppage of Antonio Margarito in January at Staples Center.
Virtually no one expected the 37-year-old Mosley to have any real chance of defeating the 30-year-old Margarito.
But Mosley beat Margarito from pillar to post. Margarito then had his license revoked when he was caught with plaster-contained hand wraps before the fight.
Unfortunately, 2009 also witnessed the untimely July deaths of gentleman boxers Alexis Arguello, Arturo Gatti and Vernon Forrest.
Their demise puts the aforementioned achievements into perspective.
Source: dailynews.com
Saturday, 2 January 2010
Boxing is flunking this test -- Los Angeles Times
By Bill Dwyre, Los Angeles Times
What began as a giggle has become a groan.
The sport of boxing, the master of such things, has once again tangled the lines on its parachute. The next sound you hear could be the Pacquiao-Mayweather mega-fight crashing to the ground and disintegrating.
This was to be the fight of the century, even though the century will only be 10 years and 10 weeks old on the scheduled date of March 13. It was to be the best against the best, former pound-for-pound king against current pound-for-pound king. The NFL has its Super Bowl. This would be boxing's.
Oops.
Enter all those things that keep boxing writers employed and boxing fans bewildered: Greed, jealousy, ego, stupidity. If you are familiar with the Ten Commandments, there are rules against lying, cheating, stealing and coveting. Boxing just Xeroxed those and advised all in the sport to do the opposite.
It has been a daily soap opera. The fight was to be at boxing's current mecca, the MGM Grand in Las Vegas. Then, with only i's to be dotted and t's to be crossed, the Floyd Mayweather Jr. camp demanded extensive blood testing, not normal pre-fight procedure. By direct statement and implication, they said they were doing so because Manny Pacquiao's recent success came from his use of steroids.
For a while, the back-and-forth over when, where and how much testing would be put in the contract was worth a giggle. It seemed like little more than hype to hype the hype, some early pay-per-view selling for a fight that could do a record 3 million buys. Soon, it became clear that Pacquiao didn't see it that way, didn't just shrug like others who have fought the Mayweather clan and swallowed baloney sandwiches along the way.
The pride of the Philippines was angry, and he said so. There was no smoking gun, no document saying -- even hinting -- that he had ever taken performance-enhancing drugs of any kind. There was no newspaper story, no Mitchell Report, no papers fetched out of Victor Conte's trash bin at BALCO. There was only Floyd Mayweather Sr. and uncle Roger Mayweather, Floyd Jr.'s trainer, yukking it up to writers and broadcasters about their presumption of Pacquiao's steroid use. The basis of that seemed to be Pacquiao's muscular look and rise from a 106-pounder years ago to a fighter fairly comfortable at 147 now.
Soon, somebody stupidly decided to press this issue and Mayweather himself, along with best friend and manager Leonard Ellerbe and promoters Richard Schaefer and Oscar De La Hoya of Golden Boy, were dragged along for the Kool-Aid drinking. All four should have known better. All four are smarter than that.
Floyd Sr. and Uncle Roger are not. Their forte is trash-talking and braggadocio.
To put it gently, both had
fight careers long enough to have resulted in ongoing fogginess.
It really got ugly when Pacquiao's trainer, Freddie Roach, who also took a lot of punches over the years but seems to have retained better clarity, said, in perhaps the sports put-down quote of the year, "This is all coming from Floyd Mayweather Sr., a disgruntled trainer who couldn't prepare his fighter [Ricky Hatton] to last past the second round against Manny. Just because he's a convicted drug dealer doesn't make him a drug expert."
Currently, there is an abundance of flawed premises:
* This fight has to take place because there is so much money at stake. Also, so much prestige for the sport.
That is logical. Boxing is not. It may be the only human pursuit, outside of war and divorce, where anger trumps greed.
* A delay will be OK and all will be forgotten, even if this takes place later in the year.
Any delay past May 1 means that boxing has so badly tripped over itself, right at a time when it had nicely weathered the threat of mixed martial arts fighting, that is has suffered a long-term setback. And if it tries to sell us a couple of interim fights (Mayweather versus Ricky Hatton's brother or Pacquiao versus Yuri Foreman or Paulie Malignaggi), the public and press ought to just stay home.
As Dick Vitale would say, "Boycott, baby."
* Pacquiao can't turn this one down because he needs to prove he's the best, plus the money will help both his Congressional campaign in the Philippines and his ongoing philanthropy.
Pacquiao doesn't need to prove anything to anybody. Nor does Mayweather. They are both great fighters. That's not going to change, no matter what does or doesn't happen or what is or isn't said. The public wants the fight, because the public has long been brainwashed into thinking that every sport needs to end with a Super Bowl. The public will be fine without. Not so boxing, which might just go back to being a nightly one-liner for Jay Leno, right after his Detroit Lions jokes.
As for the money, Pacquiao has filed a defamation lawsuit. It lays out the causes nicely. O'Melveny & Myers in Los Angeles has the case and lawyers at that firm must be crawling over each other over for a chance to get Pretty Boy Sr. and Uncle Roger on the witness stand. Pacquiao could make as much or more without ever taking a punch.
* If they do somehow come to an agreement and the fight is on, there will be so much vitriol that the lead-up to the bout will be unbearable.
Not in this sport, where people sue and counter-sue all the time. They slander one another in the afternoon and have dinner together at night. Mortal enemies on Monday are best friends Tuesday.
The outcome here will be fascinating. This is a new year. Boxing has been on a roll. But it also is an old con game with little sense of calendar.
bill.dwyre@latimes.com
Source: latimes.com
What began as a giggle has become a groan.
The sport of boxing, the master of such things, has once again tangled the lines on its parachute. The next sound you hear could be the Pacquiao-Mayweather mega-fight crashing to the ground and disintegrating.
This was to be the fight of the century, even though the century will only be 10 years and 10 weeks old on the scheduled date of March 13. It was to be the best against the best, former pound-for-pound king against current pound-for-pound king. The NFL has its Super Bowl. This would be boxing's.
Oops.
Enter all those things that keep boxing writers employed and boxing fans bewildered: Greed, jealousy, ego, stupidity. If you are familiar with the Ten Commandments, there are rules against lying, cheating, stealing and coveting. Boxing just Xeroxed those and advised all in the sport to do the opposite.
It has been a daily soap opera. The fight was to be at boxing's current mecca, the MGM Grand in Las Vegas. Then, with only i's to be dotted and t's to be crossed, the Floyd Mayweather Jr. camp demanded extensive blood testing, not normal pre-fight procedure. By direct statement and implication, they said they were doing so because Manny Pacquiao's recent success came from his use of steroids.
For a while, the back-and-forth over when, where and how much testing would be put in the contract was worth a giggle. It seemed like little more than hype to hype the hype, some early pay-per-view selling for a fight that could do a record 3 million buys. Soon, it became clear that Pacquiao didn't see it that way, didn't just shrug like others who have fought the Mayweather clan and swallowed baloney sandwiches along the way.
The pride of the Philippines was angry, and he said so. There was no smoking gun, no document saying -- even hinting -- that he had ever taken performance-enhancing drugs of any kind. There was no newspaper story, no Mitchell Report, no papers fetched out of Victor Conte's trash bin at BALCO. There was only Floyd Mayweather Sr. and uncle Roger Mayweather, Floyd Jr.'s trainer, yukking it up to writers and broadcasters about their presumption of Pacquiao's steroid use. The basis of that seemed to be Pacquiao's muscular look and rise from a 106-pounder years ago to a fighter fairly comfortable at 147 now.
Soon, somebody stupidly decided to press this issue and Mayweather himself, along with best friend and manager Leonard Ellerbe and promoters Richard Schaefer and Oscar De La Hoya of Golden Boy, were dragged along for the Kool-Aid drinking. All four should have known better. All four are smarter than that.
Floyd Sr. and Uncle Roger are not. Their forte is trash-talking and braggadocio.
To put it gently, both had
fight careers long enough to have resulted in ongoing fogginess.
It really got ugly when Pacquiao's trainer, Freddie Roach, who also took a lot of punches over the years but seems to have retained better clarity, said, in perhaps the sports put-down quote of the year, "This is all coming from Floyd Mayweather Sr., a disgruntled trainer who couldn't prepare his fighter [Ricky Hatton] to last past the second round against Manny. Just because he's a convicted drug dealer doesn't make him a drug expert."
Currently, there is an abundance of flawed premises:
* This fight has to take place because there is so much money at stake. Also, so much prestige for the sport.
That is logical. Boxing is not. It may be the only human pursuit, outside of war and divorce, where anger trumps greed.
* A delay will be OK and all will be forgotten, even if this takes place later in the year.
Any delay past May 1 means that boxing has so badly tripped over itself, right at a time when it had nicely weathered the threat of mixed martial arts fighting, that is has suffered a long-term setback. And if it tries to sell us a couple of interim fights (Mayweather versus Ricky Hatton's brother or Pacquiao versus Yuri Foreman or Paulie Malignaggi), the public and press ought to just stay home.
As Dick Vitale would say, "Boycott, baby."
* Pacquiao can't turn this one down because he needs to prove he's the best, plus the money will help both his Congressional campaign in the Philippines and his ongoing philanthropy.
Pacquiao doesn't need to prove anything to anybody. Nor does Mayweather. They are both great fighters. That's not going to change, no matter what does or doesn't happen or what is or isn't said. The public wants the fight, because the public has long been brainwashed into thinking that every sport needs to end with a Super Bowl. The public will be fine without. Not so boxing, which might just go back to being a nightly one-liner for Jay Leno, right after his Detroit Lions jokes.
As for the money, Pacquiao has filed a defamation lawsuit. It lays out the causes nicely. O'Melveny & Myers in Los Angeles has the case and lawyers at that firm must be crawling over each other over for a chance to get Pretty Boy Sr. and Uncle Roger on the witness stand. Pacquiao could make as much or more without ever taking a punch.
* If they do somehow come to an agreement and the fight is on, there will be so much vitriol that the lead-up to the bout will be unbearable.
Not in this sport, where people sue and counter-sue all the time. They slander one another in the afternoon and have dinner together at night. Mortal enemies on Monday are best friends Tuesday.
The outcome here will be fascinating. This is a new year. Boxing has been on a roll. But it also is an old con game with little sense of calendar.
bill.dwyre@latimes.com
Source: latimes.com
How Team Mayweather May be Able to Weather the Defamation Storm -- 8CountNews
By Paul Haberman, 8CountNews
A Quick Review of the Necessary Elements of Defamation Per Se in the Backdrop of Manny Pacquiao’s Lawsuit Against Team Mayweather and How Team Mayweather May be Able to Succeed in Challenging the Lawsuit
Round one of the battle between boxing’s pound-for-pound best, Filipino sensation Manny (Pac Man) Pacquiao and the undefeated Floyd (Money) Mayweather took place about two and half months ahead of schedule. On December 30, 2009, at a time when boxing fans around the world remained cautiously optimistic that Mayweather and Pacquiao would put their respective feelings on the drug testing controversy aside and salvage the March 13, 2010 mega-bout, Pacquiao filed a federal complaint (the “Complaint”) in the United States District Court of the State of Nevada against Mayweather, as well as his father, Floyd Mayweather, Sr., his uncle and trainer, Roger Mayweather, Mayweather Promotions, LLC, Richard Schaefer, the Golden Boy Promotions executive who has been acting as Mayweather’s mouthpiece in negotiations for the Pacquiao fight, and Oscar De La Hoya (collectively the “Defendants”). The Complaint alleges a single cause of action, defamation per se, and cites to several specific instances where the Defendants purportedly made statements inferring that Pacquiao uses or has used performance-enhancing drugs. Since the filing of the Complaint, it has already been reported that the March 13, 2010 date is off, and with the legal wrangling that will inevitably occur in the coming weeks, some may wonder if this fight will ever happen at all. At the core of this lawsuit is not when or if the fight will happen, however, but rather a basic legal question: Can the Defendants be found liable for defamation per se pursuant to the allegations made in the Complaint? A brief analysis of this possibility follows.
What are the Elements of Defamation and Defamation Per Se?
There are two basic forms of defamation, libel, which is defamation in a written form, such as in a newspaper, magazine, or blog, and slander, which is a defamatory spoken statement. The basic elements of a defamation cause of action are: (1) a false statement; (2) publication of the false statement to a third party; (3) fault amounting to at least negligence on the part of the publisher if the defamatory matter is one of public concern; and (4) damage to the person alleging defamation. When alleging defamation per se, or defamation by, of, for, or in itself, proof of damage is not necessary. Rather, one must be able to establish simply that a defamatory statement was made. When a public figure brings an action for defamation, he or she must also show “actual malice,” or that the person making the statement at issue knew it to be false or issued the statement in reckless disregard to the truth. Mere opinions are legally protected.
What Can Team Mayweather Do First?
Upon service of a federal complaint, a defendant may either answer the complaint, meaning that he or she would provide an itemized written response to the allegations contained within the complaint, or make a motion to dismiss pursuant to Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 12(b) and/or a motion for summary judgment pursuant to Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 56. Although Rule 12(b) provides seven separate grounds for filing a motion to dismiss, the most common ground is failure to state a claim upon which relief can be granted. By filing such a motion, a defendant is essentially alleging that the plaintiff has failed to allege the requisite elements of a given cause of action within the four corners of the complaint. To successfully oppose a motion to dismiss for failure to state a claim upon which relief can be granted, a plaintiff must show that he or she has, in fact, made a prima facie showing, or showing at first view, that he or she is entitled to the relief sought in the complaint as a matter of law.
Given the high stakes involved in Pacquiao v. Mayweather, one would anticipate that the Defendants, or at least a few of the Defendants, will be making a motion to dismiss the Complaint. In order to make a successful motion to dismiss, the Defendants will have to allege that Pacquiao failed to allege the requisite elements of a cause of action for defamation per se. Pacquiao would then have oppose the Defendants’ motion by showing that he made a prima facie showing to entitlement to relief for defamation per se as a matter of law. To do so, Pacquiao would have to walk each statement made concerning his use of performance-enhancing drugs that is referred to in the Complaint through the elements detailed above and show why, before the start of any depositions or other discovery, he has made a sufficient initial showing of defamation per se based on same. The federal court must then review the Complaint, review the arguments, review the case law supporting the arguments, and decide whether or not Pacquiao’s cause of action is legally sufficient as to all or some of the Defendants.
Can Team Mayweather Succeed in Having the Complaint Dismissed?
Pacquiao’s Complaint details seven or eight specific instances where he was purportedly defamed. Of the specific instances documented, three or four of them appear to indicate that Pacquiao uses or used performance-enhancing drugs, while the balance of the instances seem fall into the category of innuendo, inference, or opinion. The strongest claim appears to be against Roger Mayweather, who allegedly told the website Boxing Scene that “I know he’s got somethin’ in his system anyway.” This particular statement reportedly came on December 30, 2009, the same day the Complaint was filed and several days after Pacquiao first started telling the press that he would be filing a lawsuit. Unlike most of the others, Roger Mayweather’s quote most explicitly declares that Pacquiao uses performance-enhancing drugs as if it were a fact. An allegation against Richard Schaefer is concerning for similar reasons, but is not directly quoted. The Complaint is thus rather vague as to how defamatory Schaefer’s alleged statements actually were.
The weakest claim appears to be made against Oscar De La Hoya, whose written tirade on his blog about the drug-testing situation is quoted within the Complaint. De La Hoya’s blog reportedly read as follows:
“If Pacquiao, the toughest guy on the planet, is afraid of needles and having a few teaspoons of blood drawn from his system, then something is wrong. The guy has tattoos everywhere; he’s tattooed from top to bottom. You’re telling me he’s afraid of needles? Now I have to wonder about him. I’m saying to myself ‘Wow, those Mosley punches, those Vargas punches and those Pacquiao punches all felt the same.’ I’m not saying yes or no. I’m just saying that now people have to wonder, ‘Why doesn’t he want to do [even more blood tests]? Why is it such a big deal?[‘]”
The Complaint goes on to allege that De La Hoya also added that “[w]hy don’t you want to do it? C’mon. It’s only a little bit of blood. If you have nothing to hide, then do the test.”
Despite its incendiary nature, at no time within the language quoted above does De La Hoya expressly accuse Pacquiao of using performance-enhancing drugs. Instead, De La Hoya uses a fact about Pacquiao to undermine Pacquiao’s claims of a dislike of needles, opines about Pacquiao’s punching power as against prior, naturally bigger rivals, and opines that Pacquiao should submit to random testing if he has nothing to hide. The rest of the allegedly defamatory statements fall between Roger Mayweather’s and De La Hoya’s remarks in their degrees of severity. A few, like De La Hoya’s, arguably appear to be nothing more than opinion, which is legally protected. In sum, therefore, it would appear as if several of the Defendants might be able to stop Pacquiao in round one of the mega-fight of 2010 and be dismissed from the lawsuit if a motion to dismiss is made.
* * *
And Speaking of Casting Doubt on an Athlete’s Gifts, There’s Also the Danny Green vs. Roy Jones Controversy: Lost on the firestorm that is the Mayweather-Pacquiao drug testing controversy was the December 22, 2009 letter written by John S. Wirt, Chief Executive Officer of Square Ring Promotions, Roy Jones, Jr.’s promotional company, to the New South Wales Sports Authority, regarding the hand wraps used by IBO cruiserweight champion Danny (Green Machine) Green in his December 2, 2009 bout with Jones in Sydney, Australia . Wirt alleges in the letter that Green, who won the bout by first round technical knockout, used wraps that were both wider and of a different, less soft type than is allowed under New South Wales’ Boxing and Wrestling Control Regulations. Wirt thus requests that the result of the bout should be overturned.
While a quick look at the Regulations appears to support Wirt’s position, there are a few items to consider before joking that Danny Green is Australian for Antonio Margarito. First, Green’s wraps were allegedly inspected by New South Wales Sports Authority officials before the fight and were given clearance. It is thus an open question whether the New South Wales Sports Authority will rule against Green given its own potential culpability. Further, unlike Team Margarito’s placement of an overtly illegal substance on his hand wraps before his bout with “Sugar” Shane Mosley, Green’s allegedly improper wrapping appears to constitute, at best, a technical violation of the New South Wales Boxing and Wrestling Control Regulations. In other words, the wraps, as described in Wirt’s letter, may have been banned by the text of the Boxing and Wrestling Control Regulations, but may have not been otherwise improper if used in other jurisdictions. On the other hand, a Plaster of Paris-like substance, like the one found on Margarito’s wraps, is very likely banned by most every athletic commission worldwide.
Paul Stuart Haberman, Esq. is an attorney at the New York law firm of Heidell, Pittoni, Murphy & Bach, LLP. He is also a New York State licensed boxing manager and the Chairman of the Sports Law Committee of the New York County Lawyers Association. He can be e-mailed at haberman.paul@gmail.com. ©
Source: 8countnews.com
A Quick Review of the Necessary Elements of Defamation Per Se in the Backdrop of Manny Pacquiao’s Lawsuit Against Team Mayweather and How Team Mayweather May be Able to Succeed in Challenging the Lawsuit
Round one of the battle between boxing’s pound-for-pound best, Filipino sensation Manny (Pac Man) Pacquiao and the undefeated Floyd (Money) Mayweather took place about two and half months ahead of schedule. On December 30, 2009, at a time when boxing fans around the world remained cautiously optimistic that Mayweather and Pacquiao would put their respective feelings on the drug testing controversy aside and salvage the March 13, 2010 mega-bout, Pacquiao filed a federal complaint (the “Complaint”) in the United States District Court of the State of Nevada against Mayweather, as well as his father, Floyd Mayweather, Sr., his uncle and trainer, Roger Mayweather, Mayweather Promotions, LLC, Richard Schaefer, the Golden Boy Promotions executive who has been acting as Mayweather’s mouthpiece in negotiations for the Pacquiao fight, and Oscar De La Hoya (collectively the “Defendants”). The Complaint alleges a single cause of action, defamation per se, and cites to several specific instances where the Defendants purportedly made statements inferring that Pacquiao uses or has used performance-enhancing drugs. Since the filing of the Complaint, it has already been reported that the March 13, 2010 date is off, and with the legal wrangling that will inevitably occur in the coming weeks, some may wonder if this fight will ever happen at all. At the core of this lawsuit is not when or if the fight will happen, however, but rather a basic legal question: Can the Defendants be found liable for defamation per se pursuant to the allegations made in the Complaint? A brief analysis of this possibility follows.
What are the Elements of Defamation and Defamation Per Se?
There are two basic forms of defamation, libel, which is defamation in a written form, such as in a newspaper, magazine, or blog, and slander, which is a defamatory spoken statement. The basic elements of a defamation cause of action are: (1) a false statement; (2) publication of the false statement to a third party; (3) fault amounting to at least negligence on the part of the publisher if the defamatory matter is one of public concern; and (4) damage to the person alleging defamation. When alleging defamation per se, or defamation by, of, for, or in itself, proof of damage is not necessary. Rather, one must be able to establish simply that a defamatory statement was made. When a public figure brings an action for defamation, he or she must also show “actual malice,” or that the person making the statement at issue knew it to be false or issued the statement in reckless disregard to the truth. Mere opinions are legally protected.
What Can Team Mayweather Do First?
Upon service of a federal complaint, a defendant may either answer the complaint, meaning that he or she would provide an itemized written response to the allegations contained within the complaint, or make a motion to dismiss pursuant to Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 12(b) and/or a motion for summary judgment pursuant to Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 56. Although Rule 12(b) provides seven separate grounds for filing a motion to dismiss, the most common ground is failure to state a claim upon which relief can be granted. By filing such a motion, a defendant is essentially alleging that the plaintiff has failed to allege the requisite elements of a given cause of action within the four corners of the complaint. To successfully oppose a motion to dismiss for failure to state a claim upon which relief can be granted, a plaintiff must show that he or she has, in fact, made a prima facie showing, or showing at first view, that he or she is entitled to the relief sought in the complaint as a matter of law.
Given the high stakes involved in Pacquiao v. Mayweather, one would anticipate that the Defendants, or at least a few of the Defendants, will be making a motion to dismiss the Complaint. In order to make a successful motion to dismiss, the Defendants will have to allege that Pacquiao failed to allege the requisite elements of a cause of action for defamation per se. Pacquiao would then have oppose the Defendants’ motion by showing that he made a prima facie showing to entitlement to relief for defamation per se as a matter of law. To do so, Pacquiao would have to walk each statement made concerning his use of performance-enhancing drugs that is referred to in the Complaint through the elements detailed above and show why, before the start of any depositions or other discovery, he has made a sufficient initial showing of defamation per se based on same. The federal court must then review the Complaint, review the arguments, review the case law supporting the arguments, and decide whether or not Pacquiao’s cause of action is legally sufficient as to all or some of the Defendants.
Can Team Mayweather Succeed in Having the Complaint Dismissed?
Pacquiao’s Complaint details seven or eight specific instances where he was purportedly defamed. Of the specific instances documented, three or four of them appear to indicate that Pacquiao uses or used performance-enhancing drugs, while the balance of the instances seem fall into the category of innuendo, inference, or opinion. The strongest claim appears to be against Roger Mayweather, who allegedly told the website Boxing Scene that “I know he’s got somethin’ in his system anyway.” This particular statement reportedly came on December 30, 2009, the same day the Complaint was filed and several days after Pacquiao first started telling the press that he would be filing a lawsuit. Unlike most of the others, Roger Mayweather’s quote most explicitly declares that Pacquiao uses performance-enhancing drugs as if it were a fact. An allegation against Richard Schaefer is concerning for similar reasons, but is not directly quoted. The Complaint is thus rather vague as to how defamatory Schaefer’s alleged statements actually were.
The weakest claim appears to be made against Oscar De La Hoya, whose written tirade on his blog about the drug-testing situation is quoted within the Complaint. De La Hoya’s blog reportedly read as follows:
“If Pacquiao, the toughest guy on the planet, is afraid of needles and having a few teaspoons of blood drawn from his system, then something is wrong. The guy has tattoos everywhere; he’s tattooed from top to bottom. You’re telling me he’s afraid of needles? Now I have to wonder about him. I’m saying to myself ‘Wow, those Mosley punches, those Vargas punches and those Pacquiao punches all felt the same.’ I’m not saying yes or no. I’m just saying that now people have to wonder, ‘Why doesn’t he want to do [even more blood tests]? Why is it such a big deal?[‘]”
The Complaint goes on to allege that De La Hoya also added that “[w]hy don’t you want to do it? C’mon. It’s only a little bit of blood. If you have nothing to hide, then do the test.”
Despite its incendiary nature, at no time within the language quoted above does De La Hoya expressly accuse Pacquiao of using performance-enhancing drugs. Instead, De La Hoya uses a fact about Pacquiao to undermine Pacquiao’s claims of a dislike of needles, opines about Pacquiao’s punching power as against prior, naturally bigger rivals, and opines that Pacquiao should submit to random testing if he has nothing to hide. The rest of the allegedly defamatory statements fall between Roger Mayweather’s and De La Hoya’s remarks in their degrees of severity. A few, like De La Hoya’s, arguably appear to be nothing more than opinion, which is legally protected. In sum, therefore, it would appear as if several of the Defendants might be able to stop Pacquiao in round one of the mega-fight of 2010 and be dismissed from the lawsuit if a motion to dismiss is made.
* * *
And Speaking of Casting Doubt on an Athlete’s Gifts, There’s Also the Danny Green vs. Roy Jones Controversy: Lost on the firestorm that is the Mayweather-Pacquiao drug testing controversy was the December 22, 2009 letter written by John S. Wirt, Chief Executive Officer of Square Ring Promotions, Roy Jones, Jr.’s promotional company, to the New South Wales Sports Authority, regarding the hand wraps used by IBO cruiserweight champion Danny (Green Machine) Green in his December 2, 2009 bout with Jones in Sydney, Australia . Wirt alleges in the letter that Green, who won the bout by first round technical knockout, used wraps that were both wider and of a different, less soft type than is allowed under New South Wales’ Boxing and Wrestling Control Regulations. Wirt thus requests that the result of the bout should be overturned.
While a quick look at the Regulations appears to support Wirt’s position, there are a few items to consider before joking that Danny Green is Australian for Antonio Margarito. First, Green’s wraps were allegedly inspected by New South Wales Sports Authority officials before the fight and were given clearance. It is thus an open question whether the New South Wales Sports Authority will rule against Green given its own potential culpability. Further, unlike Team Margarito’s placement of an overtly illegal substance on his hand wraps before his bout with “Sugar” Shane Mosley, Green’s allegedly improper wrapping appears to constitute, at best, a technical violation of the New South Wales Boxing and Wrestling Control Regulations. In other words, the wraps, as described in Wirt’s letter, may have been banned by the text of the Boxing and Wrestling Control Regulations, but may have not been otherwise improper if used in other jurisdictions. On the other hand, a Plaster of Paris-like substance, like the one found on Margarito’s wraps, is very likely banned by most every athletic commission worldwide.
Paul Stuart Haberman, Esq. is an attorney at the New York law firm of Heidell, Pittoni, Murphy & Bach, LLP. He is also a New York State licensed boxing manager and the Chairman of the Sports Law Committee of the New York County Lawyers Association. He can be e-mailed at haberman.paul@gmail.com. ©
Source: 8countnews.com
The Ring Magazine’s Nigel Collins’ early Pacquiao-Mayweather forewarning -- Examiner
By Chris Robinson, Examiner.com
As we take officially take in the New Year it still seems a bit surreal that on March 13th we most likely won’t be seeing Manny Pacquiao and Floyd Mayweather do battle. While ultimately disappointing, at least for now, it is what it is and all we can do is move forward with the hopes that one day the two men will meet.
One man who probably isn’t terribly crushed is the Ring Magazine’s Editor-in-Chief Nigel Collins, who had been very vocal in weeks past about the possibility that a Pacquiao-Mayweather showdown could very well be less than scintillating in terms of action. Speaking recently in a piece entitled ‘Careful What You Wish For’, Collins opened up on his thoughts on the bout from the get go.
“The possibility of a Manny Pacquiao-Floyd Mayweather fight has captured the imagination like no other in recent memory,” Collins stated. “The overwhelming consensus is that the match is absolutely the greatest thing that could happen to our eternally embattled and incredibly resurgent sport. I’m not so sure.”
Elaborating further, Collins flashed back to May of 2007 when the aforementioned Mayweather did battle with another one of the sports biggest superstars.
“Remember when Mayweather and Oscar De La Hoya fought?” Collins asked. “The biggest money-maker in boxing history, right? A pay-per-view bonanza so large that it floored even the folks who promoted and televised it. But what did the mainstream media say the day after that fight? Boxing is dead because it had been a boring fight. Forget the unprecedented financial success. The fight sucked.”
While a primed Pacquiao would seemingly bring much more fire and excitement to the ring than a 34 year old De La Hoya, Collins never felt that meshing his style with Floyd’s would produce something eye-opening.
“Anybody who thinks that Pacquiao-Mayweather is going to be a great fight hasn’t been paying attention,” Collins boldly claimed. “When is the last time that Mayweather has been in a great fight? The Ricky Hatton fight had a great finish but was hardly a great fight.”
Collins went on to state that while Mayweather is a fantastic boxer, he didn’t have the proper mindset towards being the greatest of all-time as he claims. Some would counter Collins by saying that pitting Mayweather with Pacquiao’s relentless attack would bring out the best in Floyd. Collins doesn’t seem to take the bate.
“Moreover, don’t expect Pacquiao’s whirlwind aggression to compensate for Mayweather’s safety first style,” Collins pointed out. “There’s an outside possibility Pacquiao could impose his will enough to force a good fight, but not a great one. It takes two to do that. And unlike Pacquiao, the last thing on Mayweather’s mind will be to make everybody happy.”
In closing Collins stated his belief that the fight will one day happen, but fears how the eventual outcome may look.
“Some fights are just meant to be and Pacquiao-Mayweather appears to be one of them. It’s going to happen and it should. I have no beef with the necessities of history. Yet I still worry. I have this haunting feeling that we’ve already seen the Pacquiao-Mayweather fight, and it’s going to look a lot like the final few rounds of the Pacquiao-Cotto fight-one guy running and the other guy chasing him. And if that’s not bad enough, wait until you read the headlines the next day.”
Collins was far from shy in sharing his feelings before the fight itself fell apart and looking back his words are almost chilling in some regards. For a fight that has been clamored for by nearly everyone, seeing Collins go against the grain and state his beliefs was somewhat striking. As a fan first, all I can hope is that Pacquiao and Floyd do meet and that they end up proving Collins wrong by producing something memorable. Gut feeling here is that Collins and everyone else involved wouldn’t mind too much.
Source: examiner.com
As we take officially take in the New Year it still seems a bit surreal that on March 13th we most likely won’t be seeing Manny Pacquiao and Floyd Mayweather do battle. While ultimately disappointing, at least for now, it is what it is and all we can do is move forward with the hopes that one day the two men will meet.
One man who probably isn’t terribly crushed is the Ring Magazine’s Editor-in-Chief Nigel Collins, who had been very vocal in weeks past about the possibility that a Pacquiao-Mayweather showdown could very well be less than scintillating in terms of action. Speaking recently in a piece entitled ‘Careful What You Wish For’, Collins opened up on his thoughts on the bout from the get go.
“The possibility of a Manny Pacquiao-Floyd Mayweather fight has captured the imagination like no other in recent memory,” Collins stated. “The overwhelming consensus is that the match is absolutely the greatest thing that could happen to our eternally embattled and incredibly resurgent sport. I’m not so sure.”
Elaborating further, Collins flashed back to May of 2007 when the aforementioned Mayweather did battle with another one of the sports biggest superstars.
“Remember when Mayweather and Oscar De La Hoya fought?” Collins asked. “The biggest money-maker in boxing history, right? A pay-per-view bonanza so large that it floored even the folks who promoted and televised it. But what did the mainstream media say the day after that fight? Boxing is dead because it had been a boring fight. Forget the unprecedented financial success. The fight sucked.”
While a primed Pacquiao would seemingly bring much more fire and excitement to the ring than a 34 year old De La Hoya, Collins never felt that meshing his style with Floyd’s would produce something eye-opening.
“Anybody who thinks that Pacquiao-Mayweather is going to be a great fight hasn’t been paying attention,” Collins boldly claimed. “When is the last time that Mayweather has been in a great fight? The Ricky Hatton fight had a great finish but was hardly a great fight.”
Collins went on to state that while Mayweather is a fantastic boxer, he didn’t have the proper mindset towards being the greatest of all-time as he claims. Some would counter Collins by saying that pitting Mayweather with Pacquiao’s relentless attack would bring out the best in Floyd. Collins doesn’t seem to take the bate.
“Moreover, don’t expect Pacquiao’s whirlwind aggression to compensate for Mayweather’s safety first style,” Collins pointed out. “There’s an outside possibility Pacquiao could impose his will enough to force a good fight, but not a great one. It takes two to do that. And unlike Pacquiao, the last thing on Mayweather’s mind will be to make everybody happy.”
In closing Collins stated his belief that the fight will one day happen, but fears how the eventual outcome may look.
“Some fights are just meant to be and Pacquiao-Mayweather appears to be one of them. It’s going to happen and it should. I have no beef with the necessities of history. Yet I still worry. I have this haunting feeling that we’ve already seen the Pacquiao-Mayweather fight, and it’s going to look a lot like the final few rounds of the Pacquiao-Cotto fight-one guy running and the other guy chasing him. And if that’s not bad enough, wait until you read the headlines the next day.”
Collins was far from shy in sharing his feelings before the fight itself fell apart and looking back his words are almost chilling in some regards. For a fight that has been clamored for by nearly everyone, seeing Collins go against the grain and state his beliefs was somewhat striking. As a fan first, all I can hope is that Pacquiao and Floyd do meet and that they end up proving Collins wrong by producing something memorable. Gut feeling here is that Collins and everyone else involved wouldn’t mind too much.
Source: examiner.com
Friday, 1 January 2010
Official statement made by Manny Pacquiao 12/29/2009 -- Pacman.CraveOnline.com
By MANNY PACQUIAO, pacman.craveonline.com
There seems to be concern from numerous members of the sports industry from writers, to reporters, even other athletes, regarding why I am concerned with random blood testing. Here is what I would like to explain for the world to understand.
My concern has never been with someone randomly checking me with regards to blood or urine. I volunteered immediately to have my urine tested anytime someone wanted to, all the way up to the time I am walking into the ring. It was later brought to my attention and the attention of my staff that you can not test for Synthetic Growth Hormone through urine. You could only detect Synthetic Growth Hormone through blood tests. Before all is this blood testing and demands from other people I had never even heard of Synthetic Growth Hormone. I have never seen it before nor have I ever used it.
As I have stated before I have never used anabolic steroids nor do I even know what they look like.
My concern as a fighter is that there should be some limitations and agreements on how much blood they can take from someone prior to a fight. My other concern is how close to the actual fight itself can they take the blood. It is my opinion taking blood from a person can weaken you. I do not want to be in a weakened state when I enter the ring against any fighter.
I view using steroids, synthetic growth hormone, or any other illegal or banned substance as cheating. I would never cheat this sport that I love. I would never cheat the legacies of the great champions I have been blessed to challenge. I would never do anything to cheat such great champions as Miguel Cotto, Ricky Hatton, all of the Mexican Warriors that I have been blessed to go into the ring and do battle with. I believe all of these men to have great honor for boxing, for their country, and for themselves. They are heroes to me. These are people I have great respect for.
There would be no way I would ever cheat them out of what they deserve.
We as boxers risk our lives every time we enter the ring. We risk our health. This is a very dangerous sport. There is nothing I would do to make me have an unfair advantage to my opposition. This would not only be unfair to their legacy, but to their health, which could cause permanent damage. I would not want to hurt anyone nor would I want to cause pain to their families.
PLENTY MORE FROM PACQUIAO... To read the rest of this statement from Manny Pacquiao, please visit CraveOnline by clicking this LINK (The rest of Pacquiao’s Statement.)
Source: pacman.craveonline.com
There seems to be concern from numerous members of the sports industry from writers, to reporters, even other athletes, regarding why I am concerned with random blood testing. Here is what I would like to explain for the world to understand.
My concern has never been with someone randomly checking me with regards to blood or urine. I volunteered immediately to have my urine tested anytime someone wanted to, all the way up to the time I am walking into the ring. It was later brought to my attention and the attention of my staff that you can not test for Synthetic Growth Hormone through urine. You could only detect Synthetic Growth Hormone through blood tests. Before all is this blood testing and demands from other people I had never even heard of Synthetic Growth Hormone. I have never seen it before nor have I ever used it.
As I have stated before I have never used anabolic steroids nor do I even know what they look like.
My concern as a fighter is that there should be some limitations and agreements on how much blood they can take from someone prior to a fight. My other concern is how close to the actual fight itself can they take the blood. It is my opinion taking blood from a person can weaken you. I do not want to be in a weakened state when I enter the ring against any fighter.
I view using steroids, synthetic growth hormone, or any other illegal or banned substance as cheating. I would never cheat this sport that I love. I would never cheat the legacies of the great champions I have been blessed to challenge. I would never do anything to cheat such great champions as Miguel Cotto, Ricky Hatton, all of the Mexican Warriors that I have been blessed to go into the ring and do battle with. I believe all of these men to have great honor for boxing, for their country, and for themselves. They are heroes to me. These are people I have great respect for.
There would be no way I would ever cheat them out of what they deserve.
We as boxers risk our lives every time we enter the ring. We risk our health. This is a very dangerous sport. There is nothing I would do to make me have an unfair advantage to my opposition. This would not only be unfair to their legacy, but to their health, which could cause permanent damage. I would not want to hurt anyone nor would I want to cause pain to their families.
PLENTY MORE FROM PACQUIAO... To read the rest of this statement from Manny Pacquiao, please visit CraveOnline by clicking this LINK (The rest of Pacquiao’s Statement.)
Source: pacman.craveonline.com
Paul Malignaggi Explains Why He Thinks Manny Has Used PEDs -- The Sweet Science
By Michael Woods, The Sweet Science
In theory and in practice I am vehemently opposed to people tossing out unfounded allegations against someone. Supply evidence, then we can talk. But saying someone is using steroids, or EPO, or HGH, based on a theory, or your gut instinct....I have to consider, what if the allegation were thrown at me, and I was 100% innocent. I'd be mightily irked. And so too would you be.
Manny Pacquaio has been hammered from all sides with folks insinuating and coming right out with the contention that they think he's been cheating, that he's been using illegal performance enhancers to give him an edge in competition. Floyd Mayweather Sr, Paulie Malignaggi, Miguel Cotto and Kermit Cintron have either accused Manny, or insinuated that he's been using PEDs. One has to wonder, where's all this smoke coming from? Is it possible that there's fire lurking? That these folks aren't just lobbing unfounded barbs at Manny, that their allegations and hints aren't just sour grapes, or posturing, or a ploy to lure Manny into a fight?
By and large, there hasn't been much in the way of coverage from the standpoint of: what if Manny is using PEDs, or was using PEDs? I think that is rightly so; I'd be more comfortable if none of us trafficked in the innuendo and speculation, and worked within the realm of evidence, and facts. But it's out there, and a topic of conversation and speculation. Perhaps it's a symptom and sign of the times we live in...
TSS reached out to Malignaggi, just off a solid win in his Dec. 12 rematch with Juan Diaz. The Brooklyn-based pugilist has never been shy about speaking his peace (I picture him exiting his mom's womb and barking at the labor and delivery crew to get the room cleaned up, stat!), and he shared with TSS what he bases his allegations, which he's careful to label opinion, upon.
First off, Malignaggi is of the belief that if the Pacquiao-Mayweather negotiations are at a fatal impasse, Yuri Foreman, and not he, will get the coveted date with Pacquiao. Malignaggi has been mentioned as stand-in for Mayweather.
He started off by insisting that " I have nothing against Pacquiao" but then went from mellow to madman in a 30 second span.
First off, the boxer wonders why Team Pacquiao isn't going after big-time newspapers, with deep pocketed owners, for libel, for insinuating that Pacquiao is drug cheat.
"If Pacquiao's so sue happy, why not sue the New York Daily News?" he asked. "Maybe they know the steroid allegations are true."
By and large, Malignaggi thinks it is impossible, utterly impossible, for a boxer to put on 15 or more pounds between March 15, 2008, when he fought Juan Manuel Marquez and weighed 129 pounds at the weigh in, and Nov. 14, 2009 when he fought Miguel Cotto and was 144 pounds at the weigh in, and more on fight night.
"It's not natural looking," Malignaggi said. But, I countered, what if Manny's supremely blessed, that unlike some other fighters who go up in weight, and look a bit bloated, and lack definition, he's just a special creature?
"He's not supremely blessed," Maliganngi said. "I know body builders. They can't put on 17 or whatever pounds of muscle in a year. It's not doable, in my opinion. These are my speculations, my opinions based on certain factual evidence. Does his weight gain look normal to you? And his head looks like it has blown up in size, too."
I offered to Malignaggi that perhaps we should be attacking the system, if we believe it to be lacking, rather than the individual.
"We can blame the system a little bit, but if you were Manny, wouldn't you want to leave no doubt? Or speculation?" said Maliganngi, who believes that by not agreeing to the terms set forth by Team Mayweather, and opposing a blood test within 30 days of the bout, Pacquaio appears guilty.
Pacquiao has agreed to take 3 blood tests: the first during the week of the kickoff news conference in early January, the second random test to be conducted no later than 30 days before the fight, and a final test after the bout. A video making the rounds from the HBO 24/7 series shows Pacquiao submitting to a blood test two or three weeks before he was due to fight Ricky Hatton, and that has cast doubt on Team Pacquiao's stance that Manny is disinclined to get a blood test too close to a bout, for fear he may be weakened. Originally, it was reported in error that that test was taken 14 days before the Hatton bout, but subsequent reports pegged the test as being taken 24 days before the scrap. Malignaggi feels Pacquiao has been caught lying, that the report from Team Pacquiao that he "has difficulty taking blood" is a cover story. "Why is he effing lying?" Malignaggi said, heatedly.
The New Yorker doesn't believe too many fighters in the lighter weight classes are using PEDs, but thinks usage isn't uncommon in the heavyweight division. "That's hard to do and make weight," he said.
The question is asked of Malignaggi: why does the issue make him so steamed?
"I don't like cheaters," he said. "This is not baseball. You're not just hitting home runs. You have to worry about peoples' lives. Miguel Cotto in my opinion has been beaten by two cheaters. Manny if he's cheating is taking away from guys who are doing things the right way. His team is reneging on their words."
And what if you're wrong, Malignaggi? What if Manny is clean, and you are hurting his rep with these allegations?
"I bet everything I own that I'm not," he said. "But we'll never find out. Hey, I would take the test in a heartbeat. I would want people to know I'm clean. He wants to leave doubts!?? His entire legacy is being questioned, he's willing to hurt his legacy and leave $40 million on the table?"
Maliganngi, after reminding TSS that he was correct in predicting he'd be gamed by judges in the first fight with Diaz, insisted that he isn't singling out Pacquiao for a personal vendetta. ""I've never had anything against him. But that's enough now. I call it like I see it."
What about those who'd say he's just trying to anger Pacquiao, to lure him into a fight?
"No. I expected he'd take the random tests to get this fight. No way I thought he'd throw away everything. That blew me away. It was cool to have my name mentioned."
Malignaggi thinks the boxing media has dropped the ball, and not exercised due diligence in examining the possibility that Manny has used PEDs.
"I understand most people like Manny, and not Floyd. Just cause that's the case doesn't mean Manny might not be cheating. It's nothing to do with him personally. But I call a spade a spade. Too many people avoid the possibilities because Manny's a likable person. He's got that front, his country loves him. That front works like crazy. Floyd plays the bad guy, but he's natural. Just don't downplay the fact that Manny might be cheating. You have to open your eyes and at least be willing to look at it. This is bigger than me. The fact that the fight is not being made, you have to question the integrity of Pacquiao."
Malignaggi then offered an analogy to the Manny-refusing-to-be-subjected-to multiple-random-drug-tests prior-to-a-fight-with-Mayweather deal. "It reminds me of the drunk guy who's pulled over at 3 AM. He has a field sobriety test, the cop knows he's drunk, he looks and acts drunk. But he refuses a breathalyzer test. That don't mean the cop don't haul him to the police station."
I reiterate...I don't think anyone should be casting aspersions based on circumstantial evidence. But with so many people ganging up on Manny, I think fight fans are owed some details on why people are accusing Pacman of using PEDs.
Source: thesweetscience.com
In theory and in practice I am vehemently opposed to people tossing out unfounded allegations against someone. Supply evidence, then we can talk. But saying someone is using steroids, or EPO, or HGH, based on a theory, or your gut instinct....I have to consider, what if the allegation were thrown at me, and I was 100% innocent. I'd be mightily irked. And so too would you be.
Manny Pacquaio has been hammered from all sides with folks insinuating and coming right out with the contention that they think he's been cheating, that he's been using illegal performance enhancers to give him an edge in competition. Floyd Mayweather Sr, Paulie Malignaggi, Miguel Cotto and Kermit Cintron have either accused Manny, or insinuated that he's been using PEDs. One has to wonder, where's all this smoke coming from? Is it possible that there's fire lurking? That these folks aren't just lobbing unfounded barbs at Manny, that their allegations and hints aren't just sour grapes, or posturing, or a ploy to lure Manny into a fight?
By and large, there hasn't been much in the way of coverage from the standpoint of: what if Manny is using PEDs, or was using PEDs? I think that is rightly so; I'd be more comfortable if none of us trafficked in the innuendo and speculation, and worked within the realm of evidence, and facts. But it's out there, and a topic of conversation and speculation. Perhaps it's a symptom and sign of the times we live in...
TSS reached out to Malignaggi, just off a solid win in his Dec. 12 rematch with Juan Diaz. The Brooklyn-based pugilist has never been shy about speaking his peace (I picture him exiting his mom's womb and barking at the labor and delivery crew to get the room cleaned up, stat!), and he shared with TSS what he bases his allegations, which he's careful to label opinion, upon.
First off, Malignaggi is of the belief that if the Pacquiao-Mayweather negotiations are at a fatal impasse, Yuri Foreman, and not he, will get the coveted date with Pacquiao. Malignaggi has been mentioned as stand-in for Mayweather.
He started off by insisting that " I have nothing against Pacquiao" but then went from mellow to madman in a 30 second span.
First off, the boxer wonders why Team Pacquiao isn't going after big-time newspapers, with deep pocketed owners, for libel, for insinuating that Pacquiao is drug cheat.
"If Pacquiao's so sue happy, why not sue the New York Daily News?" he asked. "Maybe they know the steroid allegations are true."
By and large, Malignaggi thinks it is impossible, utterly impossible, for a boxer to put on 15 or more pounds between March 15, 2008, when he fought Juan Manuel Marquez and weighed 129 pounds at the weigh in, and Nov. 14, 2009 when he fought Miguel Cotto and was 144 pounds at the weigh in, and more on fight night.
"It's not natural looking," Malignaggi said. But, I countered, what if Manny's supremely blessed, that unlike some other fighters who go up in weight, and look a bit bloated, and lack definition, he's just a special creature?
"He's not supremely blessed," Maliganngi said. "I know body builders. They can't put on 17 or whatever pounds of muscle in a year. It's not doable, in my opinion. These are my speculations, my opinions based on certain factual evidence. Does his weight gain look normal to you? And his head looks like it has blown up in size, too."
I offered to Malignaggi that perhaps we should be attacking the system, if we believe it to be lacking, rather than the individual.
"We can blame the system a little bit, but if you were Manny, wouldn't you want to leave no doubt? Or speculation?" said Maliganngi, who believes that by not agreeing to the terms set forth by Team Mayweather, and opposing a blood test within 30 days of the bout, Pacquaio appears guilty.
Pacquiao has agreed to take 3 blood tests: the first during the week of the kickoff news conference in early January, the second random test to be conducted no later than 30 days before the fight, and a final test after the bout. A video making the rounds from the HBO 24/7 series shows Pacquiao submitting to a blood test two or three weeks before he was due to fight Ricky Hatton, and that has cast doubt on Team Pacquiao's stance that Manny is disinclined to get a blood test too close to a bout, for fear he may be weakened. Originally, it was reported in error that that test was taken 14 days before the Hatton bout, but subsequent reports pegged the test as being taken 24 days before the scrap. Malignaggi feels Pacquiao has been caught lying, that the report from Team Pacquiao that he "has difficulty taking blood" is a cover story. "Why is he effing lying?" Malignaggi said, heatedly.
The New Yorker doesn't believe too many fighters in the lighter weight classes are using PEDs, but thinks usage isn't uncommon in the heavyweight division. "That's hard to do and make weight," he said.
The question is asked of Malignaggi: why does the issue make him so steamed?
"I don't like cheaters," he said. "This is not baseball. You're not just hitting home runs. You have to worry about peoples' lives. Miguel Cotto in my opinion has been beaten by two cheaters. Manny if he's cheating is taking away from guys who are doing things the right way. His team is reneging on their words."
And what if you're wrong, Malignaggi? What if Manny is clean, and you are hurting his rep with these allegations?
"I bet everything I own that I'm not," he said. "But we'll never find out. Hey, I would take the test in a heartbeat. I would want people to know I'm clean. He wants to leave doubts!?? His entire legacy is being questioned, he's willing to hurt his legacy and leave $40 million on the table?"
Maliganngi, after reminding TSS that he was correct in predicting he'd be gamed by judges in the first fight with Diaz, insisted that he isn't singling out Pacquiao for a personal vendetta. ""I've never had anything against him. But that's enough now. I call it like I see it."
What about those who'd say he's just trying to anger Pacquiao, to lure him into a fight?
"No. I expected he'd take the random tests to get this fight. No way I thought he'd throw away everything. That blew me away. It was cool to have my name mentioned."
Malignaggi thinks the boxing media has dropped the ball, and not exercised due diligence in examining the possibility that Manny has used PEDs.
"I understand most people like Manny, and not Floyd. Just cause that's the case doesn't mean Manny might not be cheating. It's nothing to do with him personally. But I call a spade a spade. Too many people avoid the possibilities because Manny's a likable person. He's got that front, his country loves him. That front works like crazy. Floyd plays the bad guy, but he's natural. Just don't downplay the fact that Manny might be cheating. You have to open your eyes and at least be willing to look at it. This is bigger than me. The fact that the fight is not being made, you have to question the integrity of Pacquiao."
Malignaggi then offered an analogy to the Manny-refusing-to-be-subjected-to multiple-random-drug-tests prior-to-a-fight-with-Mayweather deal. "It reminds me of the drunk guy who's pulled over at 3 AM. He has a field sobriety test, the cop knows he's drunk, he looks and acts drunk. But he refuses a breathalyzer test. That don't mean the cop don't haul him to the police station."
I reiterate...I don't think anyone should be casting aspersions based on circumstantial evidence. But with so many people ganging up on Manny, I think fight fans are owed some details on why people are accusing Pacman of using PEDs.
Source: thesweetscience.com
No One Is Leaving This Stage Of Negotiations Looking GOLDEN -- The Sweet Science
By George Kimball, The Sweet Science
Early in his political career, the young Lyndon Baines Johnson served as a congressional aide to Rep. Richard Kleberg, the wealthy owner of the King Ranch who was elected to seven consecutive terms in the House of Representatives, at least in part because he often ran unopposed.
One year an upstart rival politician we'll call Joe Bob had the temerity to challenge Kleberg in the Democratic primary, resulting in the convocation of the Texas congressman's staff to plot an election strategy. Several ideas were kicked around before Kleberg himself came up with a brainstorm.
"Why don't we start a rumor that he [copulates with] sheep?" proposed the politician.
This was a bit over the top, even for Lyndon Johnson. The future president leapt to his feet and said, incredulously, "But you know Joe Bob don't [copulate with] sheep!"
"Yeah," replied the congressman, "but watch what happens when the son of a bitch has to stand up and deny it!"
******
Events of the past week or two have seen the Floyd Mayweather camp adopt a similar tactic with regard to Manny Pacquiao. But if introducing what would appear to be a red-herring issue -- the debate over drug-testing procedures -- to the negotiating process was intended as a negotiating ploy, it would appear for the moment to have backfired. The idea might have been to force Pacquiao to go on the defensive, but Pac-Man instead responded with his stock in trade, the counterpunch -- in this case the multi-million dollar defamation suit he filed against the Mayweathers, pere et fils,, with the U.S. District Court in Las Vegas on Wednesday.
In boxing even more than in life, you never say never, but you'd have to say that Pacquiao-Mayweather is a dead issue right now, at least in its March 13 incarnation. Bob Arum says Pacquiao is prepared to move along to another opponent, and Mayweather is supposedly looking at Matthew Hatton in England.
We'll believe that when we see it, for at least three reasons: (1) There would hardly seem to be enough money in that one to make it worth Floyd's time, (2) He's going to have to put so much into preparing a defense to this lawsuit that he mightn't have time to train and (3) He'd get a better workout if he stayed in Vegas and boxed one of Uncle Roger's girl opponents.
*****
Colleagues on this site have already done a good job of dissecting this process. Ron Borges is absolutely correct in noting that in the midst of all the posturing that's gone on, you'd be a fool to accept at face value anything coming out of any of the parties' mouths. And Frank Lotierzo is spot on in noting that if you had absolutely no desire to actually get in the ring with Manny Pacquiao but were still looking to save face, you'd do pretty much exactly what Mayweather has done. Which is to say, talk tough while you get others to run interference with a series of actions seemingly calculated to ensure that the fight doesn't come off.
But left almost unscathed in all of this heretofore has been the convoluted role played by Golden Boy -- by CEO Richard Schaefer, by the company's namesake Oscar the Blogger, GBP's subsidiary enterprise, The Ring, and at least a few of the lap-dogs and lackeys whose favor GPB has cultivated elsewhere in the media.
In late March of 2008, Shane Mosley and Zab Judah appeared at a New York press conference to announce a fight between them in Las Vegas two months later. As it happened, the BALCO trial had gotten underway out in California that week. That day I sat with Judah and his attorney Richard Shinefield as they explained that they intended to ask that both boxers agree to blood testing in the runup to the fight. Citing Mosley's history with BALCO and its products The Cream and The Clear (which Shane claimed Victor Conte had slipped him when he wasn't looking), Shinefield and Zab, noting that Nevada drug tests were limited to urinalysis, proposed that the supplementary tests be administered by the World Anti-Doping Agency.
Want to know what Richard Schaefer's response to that was?
"Whatever tests [the NSAC] wants them to take, we will submit to, but we are not going to do other tests than the Nevada commission requires," said Schaefer. "The fact is, Shane is not a cheater and he does not need to be treated like one."
But the fact is that Mosley had a confirmed history as a cheater. Manny Pacquiao does not. Yet in the absence of a scintilla of evidence or probable cause, less than two years later Schaefer was howling that the very integrity of the sport would be at risk unless Pacquiao submitted to precisely the same sort of testing he had rejected for Mosley.
And you thought it was Arum who was famous for saying "Yeah, but yesterday I was lying. Today I'm telling the truth!"
Schaefer, by the way, defended his 180-degree turnabout by saying he is now better educated on the issue. He couldn't resist aiming a harpoon at the media by adding that many sportswriters "don't know the difference between blood and urine testing."
Don't know how to break this to you, Richard, but sportswriters, who have had to deal with this stuff for the past twenty years, probably know more about drug-testing procedures than any other group you could name.
*****
Now, the reasonable assumption would be that by assuming the role of the point man in this unseemly mess, Schaefer was insulating his boss (De La Hoya) and his fighter (PBF) by keeping their fingerprints off it while he made a fool of himself publicly conducting this snide little campaign.
And yes, Money would have stayed out of the line of fire had not a two-month old, expletive-filled rant in which he described the Philippines as the world's foremost producer of performance-enhancing drugs not exploded on the internet at the most inopportune moment. That the lawsuit was filed less than 24 hours after "Floyd Meets the Rugged Man" overtook the Tiger Watch probably wasn't a coincidence.
(It is interesting that the suit also named Floyd Sr. as a defendant, but not Schaefer or Oscar. If Senior got sued every time he ran his mouth he'd spend even more time in court now than he did in his dope-dealing days. Maybe Freddie Roach insisted that Pacquiao add Senior's name to the Manny-Money suit.)
And we're assuming that this Dan Petrocelli, the lawyer who filed Pacquiao's suit, knows what he's doing, because if there were an even one-zillionth chance that somebody could credibly link Manny to PEDs, then it was a pretty dumb thing to do. You could ask Roger Clemens about that. Clemens' transformation from Hall of Famer-in-waiting to nationwide laughingstock didn't come from the Mitchell Report. It came from his wrongheaded decision to file a lawsuit against Brian McNamee, which in turn threw everything open to the discovery process.
*****
De La Hoya, in the meantime, was playing both sides of the fence. He let Schaefer play Bad Cop as he distanced himself from the negotiating process, but simultaneously was sniping away at Pacquiao from his First Amendment-protected perch as a Ring.com blogger.
"If Pacquiao, the toughest guy on the planet, is afraid of needles and having a few tablespoons of blood drawn from his system, then something is wrong... I'm just saying that now people have to wonder: 'Why doesn't he want to do this?' Why is [blood testing] such a big deal?' wrote Oscar the Blogger. "A lot of eyebrows have been raised. And this is not good."
Ask yourself this: Exactly what caused those eyebrows to be raised, other than the innuendo coming straight from Oscar's company?
Providing De La Hoya with a forum from which to dispense propaganda only begins to illustrate the hopelessly compromised position from which The Ring continues to operate. They might as well give Schaefer a column, too, while they're at it.
Nearly seven months have elapsed since we last visited the Ring/Golden Boy relationship, and at the risk of winding Nigel up, it might be useful here to note that in the midst of last June's discourse, The Ring's editor offered a laundry list of the magazine's covers since the De La Hoya takeover as a demonstration of Golden Boy's restraint.
After listing them, Nigel Collins wrote "that's 28 covers over the course of 21 issues, of which Top Rank had 12 fighters, as opposed to eight for Golden Boy and eight for other promotional entities. Obviously, The Ring has shown no bias to Golden Boy when it comes to magazine covers."
It had never even been suggested that the conflict of interest extended to the magazine playing favorites in choosing its cover subjects, but since Nigel brought it up it is probably worth noting now that of those eight covers given over to "other promotional entities," two were of David Haye, whose promoter was properly listed as "Hayemaker," but who had also signed a promotional deal with Golden Boy in May of 2008. (Just last month GBP issued a release in De La Hoya's name in which it described itself as "Golden Boy Promotions, the United States promoter of World Boxing Association Heavyweight World Champion David Haye.")
And even more to the point, in four other issues Nigel Collins offered in evidence the cover subject was Floyd Mayweather (Independent), although what has transpired with regard to the Pacquiao fight doesn't make Money look very independent at all, does it?
We don't regularly keep track of these things, but in making sure we didn't misquote Oscar's Blog we also came across a representation of the January 2010 issue on The Ring's website. The picture on the cover of the Bible of Boxing is of the Golden Boy himself, and the cover story "De La Hoya: The Retirement Interview."
Wow! Now there's a hot topic for crusading journalists.
Source: thesweetscience.com
Early in his political career, the young Lyndon Baines Johnson served as a congressional aide to Rep. Richard Kleberg, the wealthy owner of the King Ranch who was elected to seven consecutive terms in the House of Representatives, at least in part because he often ran unopposed.
One year an upstart rival politician we'll call Joe Bob had the temerity to challenge Kleberg in the Democratic primary, resulting in the convocation of the Texas congressman's staff to plot an election strategy. Several ideas were kicked around before Kleberg himself came up with a brainstorm.
"Why don't we start a rumor that he [copulates with] sheep?" proposed the politician.
This was a bit over the top, even for Lyndon Johnson. The future president leapt to his feet and said, incredulously, "But you know Joe Bob don't [copulate with] sheep!"
"Yeah," replied the congressman, "but watch what happens when the son of a bitch has to stand up and deny it!"
******
Events of the past week or two have seen the Floyd Mayweather camp adopt a similar tactic with regard to Manny Pacquiao. But if introducing what would appear to be a red-herring issue -- the debate over drug-testing procedures -- to the negotiating process was intended as a negotiating ploy, it would appear for the moment to have backfired. The idea might have been to force Pacquiao to go on the defensive, but Pac-Man instead responded with his stock in trade, the counterpunch -- in this case the multi-million dollar defamation suit he filed against the Mayweathers, pere et fils,, with the U.S. District Court in Las Vegas on Wednesday.
In boxing even more than in life, you never say never, but you'd have to say that Pacquiao-Mayweather is a dead issue right now, at least in its March 13 incarnation. Bob Arum says Pacquiao is prepared to move along to another opponent, and Mayweather is supposedly looking at Matthew Hatton in England.
We'll believe that when we see it, for at least three reasons: (1) There would hardly seem to be enough money in that one to make it worth Floyd's time, (2) He's going to have to put so much into preparing a defense to this lawsuit that he mightn't have time to train and (3) He'd get a better workout if he stayed in Vegas and boxed one of Uncle Roger's girl opponents.
*****
Colleagues on this site have already done a good job of dissecting this process. Ron Borges is absolutely correct in noting that in the midst of all the posturing that's gone on, you'd be a fool to accept at face value anything coming out of any of the parties' mouths. And Frank Lotierzo is spot on in noting that if you had absolutely no desire to actually get in the ring with Manny Pacquiao but were still looking to save face, you'd do pretty much exactly what Mayweather has done. Which is to say, talk tough while you get others to run interference with a series of actions seemingly calculated to ensure that the fight doesn't come off.
But left almost unscathed in all of this heretofore has been the convoluted role played by Golden Boy -- by CEO Richard Schaefer, by the company's namesake Oscar the Blogger, GBP's subsidiary enterprise, The Ring, and at least a few of the lap-dogs and lackeys whose favor GPB has cultivated elsewhere in the media.
In late March of 2008, Shane Mosley and Zab Judah appeared at a New York press conference to announce a fight between them in Las Vegas two months later. As it happened, the BALCO trial had gotten underway out in California that week. That day I sat with Judah and his attorney Richard Shinefield as they explained that they intended to ask that both boxers agree to blood testing in the runup to the fight. Citing Mosley's history with BALCO and its products The Cream and The Clear (which Shane claimed Victor Conte had slipped him when he wasn't looking), Shinefield and Zab, noting that Nevada drug tests were limited to urinalysis, proposed that the supplementary tests be administered by the World Anti-Doping Agency.
Want to know what Richard Schaefer's response to that was?
"Whatever tests [the NSAC] wants them to take, we will submit to, but we are not going to do other tests than the Nevada commission requires," said Schaefer. "The fact is, Shane is not a cheater and he does not need to be treated like one."
But the fact is that Mosley had a confirmed history as a cheater. Manny Pacquiao does not. Yet in the absence of a scintilla of evidence or probable cause, less than two years later Schaefer was howling that the very integrity of the sport would be at risk unless Pacquiao submitted to precisely the same sort of testing he had rejected for Mosley.
And you thought it was Arum who was famous for saying "Yeah, but yesterday I was lying. Today I'm telling the truth!"
Schaefer, by the way, defended his 180-degree turnabout by saying he is now better educated on the issue. He couldn't resist aiming a harpoon at the media by adding that many sportswriters "don't know the difference between blood and urine testing."
Don't know how to break this to you, Richard, but sportswriters, who have had to deal with this stuff for the past twenty years, probably know more about drug-testing procedures than any other group you could name.
*****
Now, the reasonable assumption would be that by assuming the role of the point man in this unseemly mess, Schaefer was insulating his boss (De La Hoya) and his fighter (PBF) by keeping their fingerprints off it while he made a fool of himself publicly conducting this snide little campaign.
And yes, Money would have stayed out of the line of fire had not a two-month old, expletive-filled rant in which he described the Philippines as the world's foremost producer of performance-enhancing drugs not exploded on the internet at the most inopportune moment. That the lawsuit was filed less than 24 hours after "Floyd Meets the Rugged Man" overtook the Tiger Watch probably wasn't a coincidence.
(It is interesting that the suit also named Floyd Sr. as a defendant, but not Schaefer or Oscar. If Senior got sued every time he ran his mouth he'd spend even more time in court now than he did in his dope-dealing days. Maybe Freddie Roach insisted that Pacquiao add Senior's name to the Manny-Money suit.)
And we're assuming that this Dan Petrocelli, the lawyer who filed Pacquiao's suit, knows what he's doing, because if there were an even one-zillionth chance that somebody could credibly link Manny to PEDs, then it was a pretty dumb thing to do. You could ask Roger Clemens about that. Clemens' transformation from Hall of Famer-in-waiting to nationwide laughingstock didn't come from the Mitchell Report. It came from his wrongheaded decision to file a lawsuit against Brian McNamee, which in turn threw everything open to the discovery process.
*****
De La Hoya, in the meantime, was playing both sides of the fence. He let Schaefer play Bad Cop as he distanced himself from the negotiating process, but simultaneously was sniping away at Pacquiao from his First Amendment-protected perch as a Ring.com blogger.
"If Pacquiao, the toughest guy on the planet, is afraid of needles and having a few tablespoons of blood drawn from his system, then something is wrong... I'm just saying that now people have to wonder: 'Why doesn't he want to do this?' Why is [blood testing] such a big deal?' wrote Oscar the Blogger. "A lot of eyebrows have been raised. And this is not good."
Ask yourself this: Exactly what caused those eyebrows to be raised, other than the innuendo coming straight from Oscar's company?
Providing De La Hoya with a forum from which to dispense propaganda only begins to illustrate the hopelessly compromised position from which The Ring continues to operate. They might as well give Schaefer a column, too, while they're at it.
Nearly seven months have elapsed since we last visited the Ring/Golden Boy relationship, and at the risk of winding Nigel up, it might be useful here to note that in the midst of last June's discourse, The Ring's editor offered a laundry list of the magazine's covers since the De La Hoya takeover as a demonstration of Golden Boy's restraint.
After listing them, Nigel Collins wrote "that's 28 covers over the course of 21 issues, of which Top Rank had 12 fighters, as opposed to eight for Golden Boy and eight for other promotional entities. Obviously, The Ring has shown no bias to Golden Boy when it comes to magazine covers."
It had never even been suggested that the conflict of interest extended to the magazine playing favorites in choosing its cover subjects, but since Nigel brought it up it is probably worth noting now that of those eight covers given over to "other promotional entities," two were of David Haye, whose promoter was properly listed as "Hayemaker," but who had also signed a promotional deal with Golden Boy in May of 2008. (Just last month GBP issued a release in De La Hoya's name in which it described itself as "Golden Boy Promotions, the United States promoter of World Boxing Association Heavyweight World Champion David Haye.")
And even more to the point, in four other issues Nigel Collins offered in evidence the cover subject was Floyd Mayweather (Independent), although what has transpired with regard to the Pacquiao fight doesn't make Money look very independent at all, does it?
We don't regularly keep track of these things, but in making sure we didn't misquote Oscar's Blog we also came across a representation of the January 2010 issue on The Ring's website. The picture on the cover of the Bible of Boxing is of the Golden Boy himself, and the cover story "De La Hoya: The Retirement Interview."
Wow! Now there's a hot topic for crusading journalists.
Source: thesweetscience.com
Don't blame Floyd for Pacquiao's reticence -- Miami Herald
By Lyle Fitzsimmons, Sports Network
My colleagues in the business have theirs.
I have mine.
And as anyone who's consistently read my stuff can tell you, I'm a Floyd Mayweather Jr. guy.
In 30-plus years as a fan, he's as good as I've seen. And though his personal brand of cockiness tends to rub people the wrong way, I sort of like it. For the same reasons I liked Deion Sanders when he was picking off passes and high-stepping for the 49ers and Cowboys, I suppose.
He was the best in the business and he didn't mind telling you.
In an activity like boxing -- or football, in Deion's case -- where the guys with the big mouths have to stand within arm's length of the guys they trash, I say let them talk. The ones who are good quickly earn the right to keep talking. And the ones who are nothing but talk quickly vanish.
But my fandom doesn't take away my credibility as a journalist, as 21 years of bosses would tell you. Nor does it mean I won't take "Money" to task when it's warranted, as my call for him to be DQ'd after the in-ring theatrics with Zab Judah a few years back clearly indicates.
What it does tend to mean is whenever an item involving Mayweather arises, people assume I'll take his side. And if I do indeed see things his way, they assume any argument I might make -- no matter how logical in nature -- is driven by that favoritism rather than fact.
It's nonsense. But it's predictable.
So, even as I write this on an overcast morning, I expect follow-up commentary on boards and inboxes to lean toward the "you're a nuthugger/why do you have a job" norms of the past. And hey, maybe a random smart-ass blogger short on ideas will take a shot as well.
It's all part of the territory. And it doesn't bother me in the least.
In fact, I sort of like it, too.
Which all leads me to this week's conversation starter...
It's unquestionably Manny Pacquiao -- not Floyd Mayweather Jr. -- who's at fault for moving toward an impending Las Vegas prom date with Paulie Malignaggi or Yuri Foreman come springtime, rather than a super fight with Pretty Boy Floyd.
But before Pac and Co. get the lawyers ready for another suit, however, let me be clear.
I have no reason to believe Manny has ever taken steroids or any other illegal substances. I'm convinced his exploits in the ring over the past several months -- many of them historic in magnitude -- were the product of talent rather than prescription. No defamation of any sort is intended.
Still, I'm not the guy in there taking punches from him.
And if I am Floyd Mayweather or anyone else, I want to be assured beyond the shadow of doubt that my opponent has submitted -- along with me -- to the most stringent and advanced battery of tests before he lays a glove on me. Not just a month in advance, but a week and a day as well.
Hell, test me in the ring between rounds, too, if you'd like.
Nothing to hide? Nothing to fear.
Let's remember, Pacquiao was a flyweight not all that long ago. He's added what appears to be 40 pounds of muscle to his frame -- nearly 40 percent of what had been his body weight -- and is exchanging punches with guys who as recently as two years ago were considered mismatches.
If this were a baseball player, the media would be at least casually interested.
If it were a baseball player the media and fans didn't seem to like -- Barry Bonds, for example -- the casual interest would go a tad further. And if it were Mayweather claiming "superstition" or "disrespect" as hollow reasons for backing away from the biggest fight ever, the mobs would be lining the streets.
It shouldn't make any difference that Pacquiao is popular.
And it shouldn't matter that Floyd and his family circus are villains.
In this case, right is right.
More so than baseball or other sports, making sure all is fair in boxing is vital. People can die in there. And a suspension after the fact would be a hollow salve for a beaten foe whose career is compromised through dubious tactics.
Remember, a pristine past doesn't always guarantee fair play in the future.
Just ask Antonio Margarito. Or Luis Resto.
No one suspected them before their incidents, but the sport is better off because of increased examination -- paranoia, perhaps -- that makes such dalliances more difficult to repeat.
And just because no one's asked for broad drug tests before doesn't mean they're a bad thing.
After all, it's not as if a competitive advantage is being requested.
It's not as if Mayweather asked for a 30-foot ring, pleaded he be allowed to wear headgear or demanded a reigning and defending champion come in two pounds lighter than his weight class allowed. That, understandably, would be cause for alarm.
Instead, he'd undergo the same tests as Pacquiao. Endure the same painful pin prick. Risk the same short-term arm soreness. And in the end, get the same Fig Newton cookie as reward.
It's a small price to make sure everything's on the up and up. For everyone.
Yet Pacquiao balks at testing and is given a pass, while Mayweather is again branded as the guy who avoids tough fights in the interest of protecting his record -- by the very promoter who not too long ago was favorably comparing him to Ray Leonard.
I don't care whose side you're on, that's just baloney.
And if Manny is really so upset at Floyd calling the shots, I've got a simple remedy.
Block the exit strategy.
Surrender this battle to win the war. For the sport. For the fans. For your bank account.
Take the needle in the arm. Apply a Band-Aid and rest for a bit.
Then get him in the ring for 36 minutes. And give him the beating of his life to remove any doubt about who's the best pound-for-pound property in the sport today.
That just might make him, Floyd Sr. and Uncle Roger go away for good.
Because beating Foreman, Malignaggi or any other imposter -- in spite of Arum's promotional revisionist history and Team Pac's "we're being persecuted" blather -- just won't get it done.
This week's title-fight schedule:
No fights scheduled.
Happy 2010!
Lyle Fitzsimmons is an award-winning 21-year sports journalist, a full voting member of the Boxing Writers Association of America and willing to undergo random tests to ensure he's not a blood relative of any member of the Mayweather clan. Reach him at fitzbitz@msn.com , follow him at twitter.com/fitzbitz or read him at fitzbitzonfights.wordpress.com.
Source: miamiherald.com
My colleagues in the business have theirs.
I have mine.
And as anyone who's consistently read my stuff can tell you, I'm a Floyd Mayweather Jr. guy.
In 30-plus years as a fan, he's as good as I've seen. And though his personal brand of cockiness tends to rub people the wrong way, I sort of like it. For the same reasons I liked Deion Sanders when he was picking off passes and high-stepping for the 49ers and Cowboys, I suppose.
He was the best in the business and he didn't mind telling you.
In an activity like boxing -- or football, in Deion's case -- where the guys with the big mouths have to stand within arm's length of the guys they trash, I say let them talk. The ones who are good quickly earn the right to keep talking. And the ones who are nothing but talk quickly vanish.
But my fandom doesn't take away my credibility as a journalist, as 21 years of bosses would tell you. Nor does it mean I won't take "Money" to task when it's warranted, as my call for him to be DQ'd after the in-ring theatrics with Zab Judah a few years back clearly indicates.
What it does tend to mean is whenever an item involving Mayweather arises, people assume I'll take his side. And if I do indeed see things his way, they assume any argument I might make -- no matter how logical in nature -- is driven by that favoritism rather than fact.
It's nonsense. But it's predictable.
So, even as I write this on an overcast morning, I expect follow-up commentary on boards and inboxes to lean toward the "you're a nuthugger/why do you have a job" norms of the past. And hey, maybe a random smart-ass blogger short on ideas will take a shot as well.
It's all part of the territory. And it doesn't bother me in the least.
In fact, I sort of like it, too.
Which all leads me to this week's conversation starter...
It's unquestionably Manny Pacquiao -- not Floyd Mayweather Jr. -- who's at fault for moving toward an impending Las Vegas prom date with Paulie Malignaggi or Yuri Foreman come springtime, rather than a super fight with Pretty Boy Floyd.
But before Pac and Co. get the lawyers ready for another suit, however, let me be clear.
I have no reason to believe Manny has ever taken steroids or any other illegal substances. I'm convinced his exploits in the ring over the past several months -- many of them historic in magnitude -- were the product of talent rather than prescription. No defamation of any sort is intended.
Still, I'm not the guy in there taking punches from him.
And if I am Floyd Mayweather or anyone else, I want to be assured beyond the shadow of doubt that my opponent has submitted -- along with me -- to the most stringent and advanced battery of tests before he lays a glove on me. Not just a month in advance, but a week and a day as well.
Hell, test me in the ring between rounds, too, if you'd like.
Nothing to hide? Nothing to fear.
Let's remember, Pacquiao was a flyweight not all that long ago. He's added what appears to be 40 pounds of muscle to his frame -- nearly 40 percent of what had been his body weight -- and is exchanging punches with guys who as recently as two years ago were considered mismatches.
If this were a baseball player, the media would be at least casually interested.
If it were a baseball player the media and fans didn't seem to like -- Barry Bonds, for example -- the casual interest would go a tad further. And if it were Mayweather claiming "superstition" or "disrespect" as hollow reasons for backing away from the biggest fight ever, the mobs would be lining the streets.
It shouldn't make any difference that Pacquiao is popular.
And it shouldn't matter that Floyd and his family circus are villains.
In this case, right is right.
More so than baseball or other sports, making sure all is fair in boxing is vital. People can die in there. And a suspension after the fact would be a hollow salve for a beaten foe whose career is compromised through dubious tactics.
Remember, a pristine past doesn't always guarantee fair play in the future.
Just ask Antonio Margarito. Or Luis Resto.
No one suspected them before their incidents, but the sport is better off because of increased examination -- paranoia, perhaps -- that makes such dalliances more difficult to repeat.
And just because no one's asked for broad drug tests before doesn't mean they're a bad thing.
After all, it's not as if a competitive advantage is being requested.
It's not as if Mayweather asked for a 30-foot ring, pleaded he be allowed to wear headgear or demanded a reigning and defending champion come in two pounds lighter than his weight class allowed. That, understandably, would be cause for alarm.
Instead, he'd undergo the same tests as Pacquiao. Endure the same painful pin prick. Risk the same short-term arm soreness. And in the end, get the same Fig Newton cookie as reward.
It's a small price to make sure everything's on the up and up. For everyone.
Yet Pacquiao balks at testing and is given a pass, while Mayweather is again branded as the guy who avoids tough fights in the interest of protecting his record -- by the very promoter who not too long ago was favorably comparing him to Ray Leonard.
I don't care whose side you're on, that's just baloney.
And if Manny is really so upset at Floyd calling the shots, I've got a simple remedy.
Block the exit strategy.
Surrender this battle to win the war. For the sport. For the fans. For your bank account.
Take the needle in the arm. Apply a Band-Aid and rest for a bit.
Then get him in the ring for 36 minutes. And give him the beating of his life to remove any doubt about who's the best pound-for-pound property in the sport today.
That just might make him, Floyd Sr. and Uncle Roger go away for good.
Because beating Foreman, Malignaggi or any other imposter -- in spite of Arum's promotional revisionist history and Team Pac's "we're being persecuted" blather -- just won't get it done.
This week's title-fight schedule:
No fights scheduled.
Happy 2010!
Lyle Fitzsimmons is an award-winning 21-year sports journalist, a full voting member of the Boxing Writers Association of America and willing to undergo random tests to ensure he's not a blood relative of any member of the Mayweather clan. Reach him at fitzbitz@msn.com , follow him at twitter.com/fitzbitz or read him at fitzbitzonfights.wordpress.com.
Source: miamiherald.com
Thursday, 31 December 2009
Why this crazy Pacquiao-Mayweather legal battle could turn ugly -- Guardian
Guardian.co.uk
When the anger that had been burning in Manny Pacquiao's perfectly flat and apparently legal belly for three months finally erupted in litigation, Floyd Mayweather Jr was rudely made aware that he has started a fight his lawyers will have to finish.
The little Filipino says he does not want to share a ring with a man he says thinks he is a drugs cheat – so he is suing him. There can't be a problem with that. It is up to Mayweather to back down – or defend himself, a skill he has perfected in the ring to the point of artistry.
It is hardly the sporting contest millions of boxing fans have been waiting for but, in the absence of sanity, it might have to do for the moment. And Pacquiao's lawyer, Daniel Petrocelli, says others might be named alongside Mayweather and members of his family and promotional team. This could get ugly. And drawn out.
How did a promotion that seemed to be going so smoothly come to this? If things looks too good to be true in boxing, they usually are. This is a story that suggests something else was always going on in the background.
First, the fighters' respective promoters, after quickly working out a mutually acceptable deal in nearly every respect, indulged themselves in a dangerous and tedious game of brinkmanship for nearly two weeks – at the end of which they have been reminded in the quick issue of a writ in the Nevada Federal Court yesterday that Pacquiao is not just a great fighter but a proud man.
They didn't know that already? He has legal history with Golden Boy Promotions going back to 2006, when he switched to Bob Arum's Top Rank. He was the feistiest deal-maker before agreeing to fight Ricky Hatton in May. Hatton's American promotional partners? Golden Boy. Pacquiao is nobody's doormat.
That he is prepared to defend his reputation so fiercely is not only predictable but the single nugget of integrity in a dispute that again makes professional boxing an international joke.
We have to wait now until supposedly wise men are jerked into compromise by the only language they speak: money. Otherwise, no fight – and that is inconceivable.
Still, there are too many odd twists in this tale. It is a case littered with idiocy and inconsistent moralising.
Since the row began, the Mayweathers have had the unquestioning support of Golden Boy's chief negotiator, Richard Schaefer, in their demand that Pacquiao submit to Olympic-standard random blood tests. Yet Schaefer steadfastly objected to blood tests for the shamed Shane Mosley only two years ago. Overnight, almost, Schaefer has become an avenging angel for the anti-drugs lobby.
Bob Arum, meanwhile, has been even more pro-active in the dispute on behalf of Pacquiao and has generated valuable ink for a fight that has captured an audience beyond boxing's hardcore, albeit for spurious reasons. He has talked tough, then backed down. Schaefer, to a lesser extent, has postured to no convincing effect. But the headlines have grown.
This is, after all, a bout – for Pacquiao's WBO welterweight title but really for the mythical pound-for-pound championship of boxing – that three million TV viewers in America will pay for, and probably half that again in the UK, plus whatever other markets the promoters can ginger up around the world.
Then into this mix is dropped the contentious suggestion that Pacquiao won't take random blood tests because he fears exposure as a drugs cheat. He denies the claim vehemently – and sues.
The numbers on offer for all concerned in the mega-fight of all time are considerable – yet we have been asked to believe that the fighters and their connections are willing to junk the promotion because of an unproven and, until three months ago, unvoiced suspicion about the most marketable boxer in the business.
So, how did they get themselves into such a fix? Here's a scenario that would not have displeased anyone on either side:
Mayweather did not get much of a workout in his comeback with Juan Manuel Marquéz in September, his first fight since stopping Hatton 21 months earlier. So, the theory goes, he was never going to fight Pacquiao on 13 March without a tune-up. He realises he risks his unbeaten record, perhaps even a knockout defeat, if he is not in peak form, so he looks for a way out, a postponement.
Pacquiao's trainer, Freddie Roach, was never that keen to take on Mayweather in March either, preferring to wait until the summer. He even mentions that Yuri Foreman, the new world light-middlweight champion who can't punch (and is promoted by Arum) might be an easy interim opponent, giving Pacquiao a chance to win his eighth world title at different weights – and upping his cachet in renewed negotiations with Mayweather.
Then Mayweather, for whatever reason, gives everyone "wriggle room" by calling for tests he knows Pacquiao will not agree to. The negotiations, which have been going suspiciously well, unravel and disintegrate.
Fight off. For now.
Pacquiao fights the smaller, less threatening Paulie Malignaggi or Foreman on 13 March... and Mayweather fights Matthew Hatton in the UK. These are mere ticking-over fights that nonetheless will milk the beast of a few more bucks.
The main event is postponed until Saturday, 1 May, nine days before Pacquiao runs for Congress in the Philippines. The fight grosses even more than the $200m (£123m) originally predicted.
Pacquiao beats Mayweather (as Mayweather, deep down, had feared he might). Pacquiao is elected to Congress.
Arum and Schaefer sit down to discuss the rematch, at the MGM Grand or the 100,000-plus-seater Cowboys Stadium in Texas later in the summer. Estimated revenue? $250m.
Stranger things have happened. And Bob Arum, 78 and still kicking, has been involved in quite a few of them.
Source: guardian.co.uk
When the anger that had been burning in Manny Pacquiao's perfectly flat and apparently legal belly for three months finally erupted in litigation, Floyd Mayweather Jr was rudely made aware that he has started a fight his lawyers will have to finish.
The little Filipino says he does not want to share a ring with a man he says thinks he is a drugs cheat – so he is suing him. There can't be a problem with that. It is up to Mayweather to back down – or defend himself, a skill he has perfected in the ring to the point of artistry.
It is hardly the sporting contest millions of boxing fans have been waiting for but, in the absence of sanity, it might have to do for the moment. And Pacquiao's lawyer, Daniel Petrocelli, says others might be named alongside Mayweather and members of his family and promotional team. This could get ugly. And drawn out.
How did a promotion that seemed to be going so smoothly come to this? If things looks too good to be true in boxing, they usually are. This is a story that suggests something else was always going on in the background.
First, the fighters' respective promoters, after quickly working out a mutually acceptable deal in nearly every respect, indulged themselves in a dangerous and tedious game of brinkmanship for nearly two weeks – at the end of which they have been reminded in the quick issue of a writ in the Nevada Federal Court yesterday that Pacquiao is not just a great fighter but a proud man.
They didn't know that already? He has legal history with Golden Boy Promotions going back to 2006, when he switched to Bob Arum's Top Rank. He was the feistiest deal-maker before agreeing to fight Ricky Hatton in May. Hatton's American promotional partners? Golden Boy. Pacquiao is nobody's doormat.
That he is prepared to defend his reputation so fiercely is not only predictable but the single nugget of integrity in a dispute that again makes professional boxing an international joke.
We have to wait now until supposedly wise men are jerked into compromise by the only language they speak: money. Otherwise, no fight – and that is inconceivable.
Still, there are too many odd twists in this tale. It is a case littered with idiocy and inconsistent moralising.
Since the row began, the Mayweathers have had the unquestioning support of Golden Boy's chief negotiator, Richard Schaefer, in their demand that Pacquiao submit to Olympic-standard random blood tests. Yet Schaefer steadfastly objected to blood tests for the shamed Shane Mosley only two years ago. Overnight, almost, Schaefer has become an avenging angel for the anti-drugs lobby.
Bob Arum, meanwhile, has been even more pro-active in the dispute on behalf of Pacquiao and has generated valuable ink for a fight that has captured an audience beyond boxing's hardcore, albeit for spurious reasons. He has talked tough, then backed down. Schaefer, to a lesser extent, has postured to no convincing effect. But the headlines have grown.
This is, after all, a bout – for Pacquiao's WBO welterweight title but really for the mythical pound-for-pound championship of boxing – that three million TV viewers in America will pay for, and probably half that again in the UK, plus whatever other markets the promoters can ginger up around the world.
Then into this mix is dropped the contentious suggestion that Pacquiao won't take random blood tests because he fears exposure as a drugs cheat. He denies the claim vehemently – and sues.
The numbers on offer for all concerned in the mega-fight of all time are considerable – yet we have been asked to believe that the fighters and their connections are willing to junk the promotion because of an unproven and, until three months ago, unvoiced suspicion about the most marketable boxer in the business.
So, how did they get themselves into such a fix? Here's a scenario that would not have displeased anyone on either side:
Mayweather did not get much of a workout in his comeback with Juan Manuel Marquéz in September, his first fight since stopping Hatton 21 months earlier. So, the theory goes, he was never going to fight Pacquiao on 13 March without a tune-up. He realises he risks his unbeaten record, perhaps even a knockout defeat, if he is not in peak form, so he looks for a way out, a postponement.
Pacquiao's trainer, Freddie Roach, was never that keen to take on Mayweather in March either, preferring to wait until the summer. He even mentions that Yuri Foreman, the new world light-middlweight champion who can't punch (and is promoted by Arum) might be an easy interim opponent, giving Pacquiao a chance to win his eighth world title at different weights – and upping his cachet in renewed negotiations with Mayweather.
Then Mayweather, for whatever reason, gives everyone "wriggle room" by calling for tests he knows Pacquiao will not agree to. The negotiations, which have been going suspiciously well, unravel and disintegrate.
Fight off. For now.
Pacquiao fights the smaller, less threatening Paulie Malignaggi or Foreman on 13 March... and Mayweather fights Matthew Hatton in the UK. These are mere ticking-over fights that nonetheless will milk the beast of a few more bucks.
The main event is postponed until Saturday, 1 May, nine days before Pacquiao runs for Congress in the Philippines. The fight grosses even more than the $200m (£123m) originally predicted.
Pacquiao beats Mayweather (as Mayweather, deep down, had feared he might). Pacquiao is elected to Congress.
Arum and Schaefer sit down to discuss the rematch, at the MGM Grand or the 100,000-plus-seater Cowboys Stadium in Texas later in the summer. Estimated revenue? $250m.
Stranger things have happened. And Bob Arum, 78 and still kicking, has been involved in quite a few of them.
Source: guardian.co.uk
Say it Ain't So! (But it Looks like Pacquiao-Foreman) -- SecondsOut
By Steve Kim, SecondsOut.com
I guess my New Years resolution for 2010 will be to have fewer lunches at Rafael’s, my favorite Mexican restaurant located on Beverly Blvd. and Wilcox Ave. in Montebello( a few short blocks from my office). Before I started working out at the nearby Bally’s this early afternoon, I was informed that talks between the camps of Manny Pacquiao and Floyd Mayweather were still on-going and productive.
Hey, perhaps this whole mess could be salvaged after all for March 13Th.
Then hours later as I was consuming my albondigas soup( which is Mexican for ’meatball) this arrived in my email box courtesy of veteran boxing scribe Michael Marley. I was actually informed of this via BBM message:http://www.examiner.com/examiner/x-5699-NY-Boxing-Examiner~y2009m12d30-Manny-Pacquiao-challenges-Yuri-Foreman-March-20
Yeah, it looks like Pacquiao could be facing Yuri Foreman, the current WBA jr. middleweight titlist. Which was news to Golden Boy CEO, Richard Schaefer, who told Maxboxing.com at around 4:15 pm," That’s what I’m hearing, but again, Bruce Binkow and Todd DuBoef are still having conversations. So I’m hearing these things. Supposedly Bob( Arum) mentioned it to Robert Morales and to Dan Rafael, that they are going to go with Yuri Foreman."
So what’s the plan with Mayweather?
"I’m not going to discuss what we’re going to do next," said Schaefer."I have reached out to Bruce and asked him to reach out to Todd. And if this is really the case, if they are walking away from the fight and are going to fight Foreman, if that’s the case, I will have conversations with Team Mayweather on what they want to do next." At this stage, Schaefer didn’t seem to know much more than anybody else."I talked to Bruce Binkow about 15 minutes ago and he is waiting to hear from Todd. They talked earlier today trying to gap that window as it relates to the blood testing, the cut-off date. These conversations were supposedly productive and so that’s all I know."
About a half-hour later, I received a call from Arum, who is wrapping up his vacation in Mexico. He confirmed to Maxboxing regarding Foreman,"That’s the fight we’re working on." Arum will arrive in Las Vegas on Saturday, and at that point he will start to negotiate that bout.
What also angered the veteran promoter was this story by Tim Smith of the New York Daily News:(http://www.nydailynews.com/sports/more_sports/2009/12/25/2009-12-25_a_test_of_ethics.html)
That story included this interesting tidbit from an anonymous source: "According to a source familiar with the talks, Pacquiao’s representatives asked what penalties Pacquiao would face if he tested dirty, and also if a dirty test result could be kept secret so that the integrity of the fight wouldn’t be ruined in the public eye."
Which is odd, given that the whole issue of this extra battery of tests was to show the public that there was an even playing field where both sides were abiding by the laws and regulations of the commission. Arum said of this passage,"It’s totally crazy! What kind of b*llshit is that?!?!"
This was an eventful day as Pacquiao filed a federal defamation lawsuit against the Mayweather’s, Oscar De La Hoya and Schaefer, over the comments that they have made regarding his possible usage of illegal performance enhancing drugs.
When asked if Binkow and DuBoef were still talking, Arum answered,"No, no, no! As far as we’re concerned, we filed the lawsuit and we’re going to go ahead with the Foreman fight. As far as Mayweather, we’re going to fight Foreman and maybe revisit this if they stop acting like assholes in the summer and fall. No use talking further, we’re talked out. We have a fighter who is extremely upset, we’re upset.
"This has been a smear campaign."
( Of course, this could all change by the morning. You never know.)
Source: secondsout.com
I guess my New Years resolution for 2010 will be to have fewer lunches at Rafael’s, my favorite Mexican restaurant located on Beverly Blvd. and Wilcox Ave. in Montebello( a few short blocks from my office). Before I started working out at the nearby Bally’s this early afternoon, I was informed that talks between the camps of Manny Pacquiao and Floyd Mayweather were still on-going and productive.
Hey, perhaps this whole mess could be salvaged after all for March 13Th.
Then hours later as I was consuming my albondigas soup( which is Mexican for ’meatball) this arrived in my email box courtesy of veteran boxing scribe Michael Marley. I was actually informed of this via BBM message:http://www.examiner.com/examiner/x-5699-NY-Boxing-Examiner~y2009m12d30-Manny-Pacquiao-challenges-Yuri-Foreman-March-20
Yeah, it looks like Pacquiao could be facing Yuri Foreman, the current WBA jr. middleweight titlist. Which was news to Golden Boy CEO, Richard Schaefer, who told Maxboxing.com at around 4:15 pm," That’s what I’m hearing, but again, Bruce Binkow and Todd DuBoef are still having conversations. So I’m hearing these things. Supposedly Bob( Arum) mentioned it to Robert Morales and to Dan Rafael, that they are going to go with Yuri Foreman."
So what’s the plan with Mayweather?
"I’m not going to discuss what we’re going to do next," said Schaefer."I have reached out to Bruce and asked him to reach out to Todd. And if this is really the case, if they are walking away from the fight and are going to fight Foreman, if that’s the case, I will have conversations with Team Mayweather on what they want to do next." At this stage, Schaefer didn’t seem to know much more than anybody else."I talked to Bruce Binkow about 15 minutes ago and he is waiting to hear from Todd. They talked earlier today trying to gap that window as it relates to the blood testing, the cut-off date. These conversations were supposedly productive and so that’s all I know."
About a half-hour later, I received a call from Arum, who is wrapping up his vacation in Mexico. He confirmed to Maxboxing regarding Foreman,"That’s the fight we’re working on." Arum will arrive in Las Vegas on Saturday, and at that point he will start to negotiate that bout.
What also angered the veteran promoter was this story by Tim Smith of the New York Daily News:(http://www.nydailynews.com/sports/more_sports/2009/12/25/2009-12-25_a_test_of_ethics.html)
That story included this interesting tidbit from an anonymous source: "According to a source familiar with the talks, Pacquiao’s representatives asked what penalties Pacquiao would face if he tested dirty, and also if a dirty test result could be kept secret so that the integrity of the fight wouldn’t be ruined in the public eye."
Which is odd, given that the whole issue of this extra battery of tests was to show the public that there was an even playing field where both sides were abiding by the laws and regulations of the commission. Arum said of this passage,"It’s totally crazy! What kind of b*llshit is that?!?!"
This was an eventful day as Pacquiao filed a federal defamation lawsuit against the Mayweather’s, Oscar De La Hoya and Schaefer, over the comments that they have made regarding his possible usage of illegal performance enhancing drugs.
When asked if Binkow and DuBoef were still talking, Arum answered,"No, no, no! As far as we’re concerned, we filed the lawsuit and we’re going to go ahead with the Foreman fight. As far as Mayweather, we’re going to fight Foreman and maybe revisit this if they stop acting like assholes in the summer and fall. No use talking further, we’re talked out. We have a fighter who is extremely upset, we’re upset.
"This has been a smear campaign."
( Of course, this could all change by the morning. You never know.)
Source: secondsout.com
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