Call me Johnny One Note if you will. Label me a broken record, playing the same song over and over. I don’t care because you can’t handle the truth.
Whether you like it or not, Manny Pacquaio loyalists, you are going to get Humbled, I ,mean Humberto Soto, shoved down your throats come Nov. 15 in Las Vegas.
Let?s say Soto, who does have great toughness and a rock-hard chin, manages to go the 12-round limit with Megamanny and let?s say Pacman wins unanimously but by tight scores of, let?s say, 116-112, 115-113 and maybe 117-113.
What?s going to be Pacman?s Victory Cry then, ?hey, look, I almost outpointed this guy by almost as points as Joan Guzman did??
Strikes me as mild and milquetoast. And it wouldn?t be really true since the best of the three judges who scored Guzman-Soto had the Dominican Dandy ahead by eight points or 8-4 in rounds.
Here?s what being overlooked in this insane rush to fight Soto in mid-November:
1. No one is saying that Soto is some bum off the street. He is a legitimate tough guy but Guzman was way too fast and clever for him. Won?t a fight with Pacquiao be the same thing in many respects except that the Mexican will be getting outboxed by a lefthander?
2. Poverty will not break out in Pacman?s home if keeps his boxing powder dry until mid-November. The few months off would allow him to see: 1, who wins the Sept. 13 Guzman-Nate Campbell three title belt fight; 2. see who wins the same night bout between Joel Casamayor and Manny?s storybook rival, Juan Manuel Marquez and 3, see how Ricky Hatton fares against popgun puncher Paulie Malignaggi. All the ?ands and buts? of Manny?s career could turn into candy and nuts well before the Christmas break.
3. Bob Arum wants us all to think that Pacman is the stuff boxing legends are made of. OK, fine, we can go along with the party line but match him then against opponents who will build on his legacy. Pacman does not need any more victories over mundane opponents even if Uncle Bob can get them cheaply because they are Top Rank chattel.
4. Pacquiao is no longer considered by many as just ?one of the best.? Now he?s on Mt. Olympus breathing the rarefied air that the mythical gloved god known as the best pound for pound breathes. We?ve put Pacman on a pedestal, he deserves it, and now, Mr. Arum you must bring him only your finest meats and cheeses and not hamburger helper such as Senor Soto. Soto may, as Guzman has graciously said, become a world champion but it won?t happen in a fight against Mr. P4P and it is highly unlikely at 135 pounds. No ground round, no chuck. You must deliver only filet mignon foes to Mr. Pacquiao?s table.
5. When Megamanny?s marvelous career is over, it will be time to print the legend about the legend. And the fact is that Soto does not merit a place on Pacman?s itinerary. A year ago, hell yes. Six, seven months ago, why not? But not now, not after the clinic MP put on against your well-chosen David Diaz.
6. Come on, Mr. Arum, genius promoter that you are. You can read the tea leaves here, can?t you? Ask yourself only this question, what becomes the Pacman legend most? You know the answers are as follows: the Guzman-Campbell winner, possibly Juan Ma for the third battle and definitely Hatton. Enough already, boychik, with the chopped liver.
