When Muhammad Ali failed the US Army entrance exam, a simple test that anyone who got through high school should have no problem with, some people were shocked.
But not The Louisville Lip. The champion of champions knew full well that he majored and minored in boxing and chatting up pretty females at Central High School in the Kentucky city. Reading, writing and arithmetic was not his forte, jabbing, dancing and jiving were more important subjects for the then scrawny teenager,
When the press quizzed Ali about getting KO?d by the simpleton exam, he had a terrific answer. Remember this was when he was bragging even in his sleep.
?I said I am the greatest. I said I am the fastest. I said I am the prettiest. Now did any of you pressmen ever hear me say I was the smartest??
Everyone laughed and, as was so typically of the bodacious boxer, he had again defused a tense situation with is wicked sense of humor. Ali laughed and the world laughed with him.
Now let?s look at Manny Pacquiao. I know people around him say he is going to become a lawyer. I know he still has ambitions for high political office. I would hardly call him a dummy.
But I don?t see Harvard, Yale or Princeton?or their Filpino equivalents-on his resume, either.
Which is why my old adversary, Pacman lawyer Franklin ?The Jackal? Gacal has to lead the way for his client and do it immediately.
Tea leave readers say Golden Boy wants a 70-30 split of all revenues from a Dec. 6 megabout with Da Pacman. They also say Pacquiao demands a 60-40 split. That leaves the parties 10 points apart and even Uncle Bob Arum hollers that this is the ONLY relevant issue remaining.
Jacal must do whatever he has to?threaten, plead, cajole, sweet talk?so that his client hits the De La Hoya pitch down the middle of the plate.
The crafty ?Jackal? is being now told by me, the ?White Gorilla,? that he must get his superstar client to accept this fight for a compromise percentage.
Let Pacman accept 35 percent of his biggest bonanza ever. Let De La Hoya be satisfied with 65 percent.
I think the attorney knows this. I think Megamanny knows this.
But what they should both know and accept is also this, that the vast majority of the Filipino and American public will go wild for this circus-like matchup.
My final shot is this. If I told you Selma Hayek was lounging naked in Bedroom #1 and Grandma Moses was doing the same in Bedroom #2, both aching for some manly attention, where would you go?
I guess it makes me sexist but I?m crashing Hayek?s door down with Viagra in both of my hands.
De La Hoya. For untold riches. For history. For untold glory, win or lose.
Or Humberto Soto. For a ho-hum attraction gobbled up only by the hardcore boxing fans. For relative peanuts.
Come on Emmanuel Dapidran Pacquaio, the Bad Boy born in Bukidron, make the right move.
You never said you are the smartest, either, but cementing this fight will mark you down as one sly fox.
I wish I knew how to say ?no brainer? in Tagalog.
