The Deadline
So the deadline that Top Rank’s head honcho Bob Arum set forth for Mayweather Jr. to sign the contract to fight Filipino wunderkind Manny
Pacquiao came and went, now what? As it was rumored Arum is now pushing for either a Miguel Cotto or Antonio Margarito match up for the now Filipino Congressman which comes as no surprise since the Las Vegas based promoter has been dropping hints for more than two weeks of those two possible opponents if Mayweather did not sign on the dotted line. Now Mayweather has come out and stated that he is not even thinking about boxing at the moment. His team went as far as to send out an official presser stating that no talks were ever held between Team Pac or Team May in the form of Ross Greenburg, President of HBO Sports, as intermediary.
If this was Arum’s attempt to “bake the cake” as he tends to describe the period which he lets a fight simmer, then Arum is a slyer fox that we were led to believe.
Cotto or Margarito?
An interesting point that my good friend Art Gallegos from IStandNFight.com made on his twitter.com page was that if there was any possibility that Arum was even mentioning a Pacquiao-Cotto rematch only to make the Pacquiao-Margarito look even better?
Based on some inside information that I received, I want to say yes. According to my inside source, a very well known representative for the “Pacman” was seen at the offices of Top Rank’s mexican counterpart to possibly discuss the match up against the “Tijuana Tornado”.
As I have stated in other posts, I have no interest in seeing another beating administered on Cotto from either the fists of Pacquiao or Margarito. Even though all of the boxing world is up in arms about Arum matching Pacquiao with the “most evil man to ever walk the earth”, (as Margarito is practically described in boxing forums, blogger posts and writer’s articles), in my opinion is the best fight to be made for both fighters under the same promotional umbrella.
Although everybody is complaining that what Golden Boy Promotions and Top Rank is doing, which is facing only fighters from their own promotional entities against each other and not venturing outside their stables, is killing boxing, at the end of the day its Arum’s choice in how he runs his business. I hate to play devil’s advocate but Arum is in boxing for Arum, not for the fighters, the fans or the good of the sport.
Simple as that.
Congressman is Great but Councilman is Not Bad Either…
By now, all of the boxing world and part of the secular knows that Manny Pacquiao is now a congressman in his native country of the Philippines. According to Bob Arum, Congressman Manny will be in session for three
days a week, Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday. He will prepare for his next fight in the Philippines around his political schedule and once congress is in recess for three weeks, he would finish off camp at the Wild Card Gym in late October.
Last July 4th, elections were held in all of Mexico for Mayors, congressmen and senators. In Mexico, a city councilman is not elected but appointed, most of the time by the newly elected Mayor. In Los Mochis, MX, where so many Mexican fighters call home such as Jorge “Travieso” Arce, Fernando “Kochulito” Montiel and Antonio DeMarco, a new city councilman was named. The new appointed official is no other than three time world champion Humberto “Zorrita” Soto.
Congratulations, “Zorrita”!
The “Desert Storm” Asks for a Raise
After his unanimous decision over Luis Carlo Abregu this past weekend in southern California, 140 lbs. champ Timothy Bradley called out the #1 pound for pound fighter in the world Manny Pacquiao. Many boxing fans and scribes collectively thought that the chiseled Bradley should whoa his horses and first clean up the stacked jr. welterweight division by taking on Marcos Maidana, Amir Khan and Devon Alexander.
I agree.
Still I don’t blame Bradley for doing what everybody else does and call out the biggest money maker in the sport. Many fighters claim to step in the ring for glory and/or legacy but at the end of the day, its all for the greenbacks. I am sure than when all of us go in and ask a raise, we are going to ask for the highest our particular job will pay, right?
He’s doing the same thing….
I do applaud his diet though while he is in training. As a strict lacto-ovo vegetarian myself, Bradley goes hard core and goes full vegan while he trains which I find pretty admirable and something that I can’t even fathom.
I love quesadillas.