It’s a slender reed, I admit, but Soupy Campbell is getting desperate now.
Campbell, old and creaking at 37, is trying to puff up his own fistic feathers going into a crucial Aug. 1 bout against young Timothy Bradley on Bradley’s Palm Springs area turf.
The fighter, as some comment posters have mentioned, who Campbell implies that Pacman ducked and dodged is African American Zahir Raheem.
Many potential opponents did dodge “Z Man” and Mexican superstar Erik Morales wished he had because Raheem upset him in a September, 2005, decision which was supposed to be a walk in the park before a second fight for the popular Mexican against Pacquiao.
The reason so many guys spurned Raheem was his difficult style, not because of his race. He turned his bouts into foot races.
Promoter Top Rank, never wanting to diminish any of its Mexican moneymakers, stubbed its own toe in making that match as it was “in house” meaning that Raheem and Morales were both handled by Bob Arum’s company.
Instead of vaulting into prominence, that upset left the jab and run Raheem more isolated than ever. Zahir Raheem owned the joy Saturday night.
Here’s what Bill Knight, reporting for Sweetscience.com, wrote in part:
“Raheem might have made a major breakthrough in his career. Or he might have just captured lightning in a bottle at the Staples Center.
Again, time will tell. Time will tell if Raheem keeps his career spiraling upward and upward … to better paydays, more respect and even more joy. Or …
Boxing and life are like that. Sadness and joy dip in, sail away, sometimes linger. Saturday night was one of those boxing moments — where the sadness and joy all came together in the same ring on the same evening.”
Prescient words from the scribe, you have to wonder if he hijacked my Madam Auring crystal ball.
It turned out to be merely lightning trapped inside the bottle. Excuses were made for and by Morales.
Raheem ran too much. Morales had trouble going up to 135 pounds. Morales was showing his age.
It was one of those tune up, payday scenarios which backfired and some tried to make out Raheem’s victory—judge Julie Lederman had an accurate score at 118-110—to be a fender bender, a minor accident.
If life and boxing were fair, maybe it would have been Raheem moving on to a bigger bout bonanza but they are not and Raheem got left in the breakdown lane by Top Rank.
Evidently, though, the always generous Arum did give Raheem the old Imperial Margarine TV commercial crown to wear.
Beating an “A side” star in Morales did not turn Raheem into an “A” side star who could sell plenty of tickets and magnetize a PPV or HBO audience.
In the weird ways of boxing, the upset did turn Raheem into something of a pugilistic pariah.
On the same card in Los Angeles, Paquiao stopped Hector Velasquez in six rounds and looked pretty sharp in doing so. So, on January 21, 2006, it was Pacman in the ring for “Fast & Furious 2,” a second time against Morales, and not Raheem. This time, Pacman stopped the Tijuana boxer and avenged his razor-thin decision loss to him.
Does Campbell or anyone else really think it was Pacquiao and Morales and not Big Boss Arum who decided to ignore Raheem’s upset and forge ahead with Pacquiao-Morales II?
Before Pacman-Morales II, Raheem told ESPN.com that Morales would beat the Filipino.
“Pacquiao isn’t the same kind of fighter that I am,” Raheem said.
“Pacquiao actually told me he learned about Morales from watching a tape of my fight against him. But it’s one thing to have a plan and another whether or not you can execute it. Pacquiao does one thing: Comes at you and throws the left hand. I see Morales winning this fight. I won’t say how I see him winning, but I wouldn’t be surprised if it’s by knockout.”
His next two fight results were as dismal as that fight prediction.
For Raheem, 2006 was not a banner year.
First, he lost a split decision to Brazil’s Acelino “Popo” Freitas in April. Then, in July, he went to South Africa and got knocked out by a virtual unknown named Ali ‘Rush Hour” Funeka.
Then Raheem’s stalled career went into full idle.
nd here’s where Soupy finds his angle.
In his last bout, Campbell, who failed to make weight and forfeited his lightweight title belts at the weigh in, eked out a hard-fought decision over, guess who, Funeka.
So Soupy echoing trainer John David Jackson’s comments about Packy ducking black fighters in general or black Americans in particular is designed only to put forward the silly idea that Manny has also ducked and dodged Campbell.
You know, I beat the man who knocked out the man who was ducked by Pacman.
So let’s throw this “spoiler” into Campbell’s murky soup.
He discriminates against Australians and I can prove it.
Robbie Peden knocked him out TWICE and Soupy never looked for a third chance.
Or how about Isaac Hlatshwayo, a black South African who Soupy lost to…Nate never fought him a second time.
Is that racial discrimination or just common sense in handling a fighter?
It seems to me Soupy better start concentrating on Bradley and stop worrying about Pacquiao because he was never a commercially viable opponent for the Pinoy Idol.
That’s the real common thread between he and Raheem as to Pacman. Let’s not forget that Pacman was not the megastar he is now when Raheem surprised Morales.
Soupy’s broth is easy to see through.
His sudden flying of the Raheem flag is only a ploy to make himself look good.
Soupy, here’s your new word of the day, transparent.
Got it?
It reminds me of Reggie Jackson’s quote in SPORT magazine back in 1977, asserting that he was the main man for the Yankees.
“This team, it all flows from me. I’m the straw that stirs the drink. Maybe I should say me and Munson, but he can only stir it bad.”
Pacquiao won’t say it, being the humble superhero.
So I will.
Manny is the straw the stirs the drink.
Soupy is a talented fighter, no doubt, but he can only stir it bad.
