SACRAMENTO, California–For he high rollers in Manny Pacquiao’s retinue now assembled in Las Vegas, here’s something to mull over.
If you are true blue Pacquiao extremist, why not put your money where your mouth is–and hope to win big bucks in the process?
Ignore the odds-makers that say your $240 bet on the Pacman to gobble up Juan Manuel Marquez at the Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino in Las Vegas this weekend will earn a paltry $100.
Why not go for the gusto instead.
Bodog will get you covered. The online betting site says your $100 bet on Pacquiao to win in the first round will pay you off at $2,200!
What a windfall!
Of course it is never easy to predict the outcome of a blockbuster-in-the-making like the “Unfinished Business” between Pacquiao and Marquez for the latter’s WBC super featherweight crown.
But history is on your side, folks.
In their first bout four years ago, Pacquiao pummeled Marquez down to the canvass three times in the first round. Never mind that Marquez recovered to claim a draw.
This time around there will be no Joe Cortez in the ring.
So dominant was the Filipino icon in the first three minutes that the third man in the ring then–other than the extra patient Cortez–would have stopped that fight right there and then.
Don’t you agree?
So there.
$2,200 for a stray Ben Franklin in your pocket?
Think about it.
* * *
IT WAS not billed as a sumptuous feast.
It was planned to be a simple dinner –a meet, greet and share-the-table with their idol of long ago.
For fans from a Central Luzon town where hoop dreams still soar to this day, it was a chance in a million to meet the guy they had worshipped as a sports demi-god.
The idea was for these diehards to pay a pretty penny, why not–in order to mark the guy’s birthday along with his PBA pals who are in California from Manila to play a series of games for charity.
After all, part of the proceeds from the dinner in the city of Vallejo would help a scholarship fund set up by these same fans to send to school poor but deserving students back home.
But there was something wrong with the picture.
The evening’s guest never showed up.
Needless to say, the star’s non-appearance was a big letdown for the fans who lost a weekend, to say the least.
