If boxing had an omnipotent czar, someone like baseball’s Bud Selig who can make rulings based on what he thinks is “in the best interests” of the sport, then Floyd Mayweather Jr. and Manny Pacquiao would have already fought at least once, maybe twice and possibly thrice.
Selig just knocked troubled Los Angeles Dodgers owner Frank McCourt of his owner’s box by ruling that a huge TV deal with Fox was not good for the sport or the historic team, ostensibly because McCourt would take some of the millions from Fox to meet personal needs such as his tension convention divorce from his wife.
Instead, of a central ruling authority, boxing is ruled by four world governing bodies and no one at the WBC, WBA, IBF or the WBO has the power to force “Money” and Pacman to get into a boxing ring and give fans the world over the match they have clamored for the past several years.
The reason I bring this up is because it’s turned into conventional wisdom now that the mercurial Mayweather selected Vicious Victor Ortiz as his Sept. 17 foe because the young fighter is lefthanded and thus helps prepare him for Pacquiao.
In boxing, you can almost always bet against conventional wisdom. Because Pacquiao wants to think Ortiz’s selection is an indicator that Floyd wants a piece of the Pinoy Idol in 2012 does not make it so. Ditto for the hopefulness of Coach Freddie Roach and promoter Bob Arum.
Has people gotten amnesia and forgotten that Mayweather was at ringside at Foxwoods in the Connecticut woods for his stablemate Andre Berto’s coronation, that Mayweather and Al Haymon, adviser to Mayweather and to Berto, believed that Berto would fend off Ortiz and thus set up an “intramural bout” between Berto and Mayweather?
Mayweather sat at ringside scouting Berto, not Ortiz.
Leave me with my skepticism if you must.
But at least Mayweather and Pacquiao fans can square off next Tuesday at high noon at the Hudson Theater in midtown Manhattan when Ortiz and L’il Floyd hold a big press conference.
It’s a wonder the people who book the ornate theater let boxing back on the premises since this is where Mike Tyson had a Jan. 22, 2002, meltdown which led to a wild brawl between his camp and Lennox Lewis and his beefy handlers.
WBC leader Don Jose Sulaiman got clobbered in that wild melee and later sued the hotel for insufficient security.
But I digress.
Since the presser is open to all, Pacquiao fans can fill half of the facility and Mayweather followers the rest of the seats.
I’ve come up with a perfect chant for both sets of fans.
Mayweather fans can stick to their constant refrain, their old standby. They can taunt Manny with, “Take the test!”
But now Pacman fans have a pretty good comeback line.
They can holler, “Take the deposition!”
In the best interests of boxing, I do hope fans of both superstars do turn up.
And, since NYPD Commissioner, fight fan and ex-athletic commissioner Ray Kelly has enough on his plate, I hope both sides keep their banter in the spirit of good-natured fun.
Let the Pacman fans and the Mayweather fans turn up the volume.
Maybe their message will get through to Mayweather, to Pacquiao and some of the tin ears in both their camps.
Source: http://www.examiner.com
