Notes on the back of the envelope begging to be put into a midsummer column:
Let me get this straight, Manny Pacquiao has too many “distractions” to begin his Miguel Cotto title bout training in the Philippines and may go to the Bahamas.
I know they say ‘It’s Better In The Bahamas,’ Mama, but is it really?
The capital is Funky Nassau. I know. I was there for Muhammad Ali’s final bout, when he won four out of 10 rounds against Trevor Berbick. Last I heard of the promoter of that bout, James “Jaws” Cornelius, someone had turned him into shark bait.
I rapped the weak promotion in The New York Post, labeling it “Trauma In Bahama” so I did not mind that Cornelius became shark chum instead of me.
How sad was it? Well, imagine “The Greatest” having his final pro bout in a field where they used a cow bell to signal the start and finish of each round.
It happened. I mean, who are you going to trust on this, my lying eyes or yours?
They serve potent drinks, heavy grog, with umbrellas in them in the Bahamas. Not only that, I think it’s within easy bombing range from Cotto’s Puerto Rico.
I see Bahamas as too dicey for Pacman, really. May I remind Uncle Bob Arum the thugs who beat the hell out of Don King and his trusty lawyer Charley Lomax might still be thugging there. Or they might have been replaced by some New Jacks.
I know how to seal the deal. If Manny trains at home, I will make my first White Gorilla visit to the homeland and even go to Gensan to kneel and pray by the manger in which he was hatched like a baby balut.
I mean there are island alternatives.
Rikers Island, the NYC jail across from LaGuardia Airport, gets a nice breeze in the autumn but the room service is horrendous unless you love a thin slice of balogna on week old bread.
There are zero distractions other than the usual knife fights on Rikers.
Rappers such as Li’l Kim and Remy Ma, they recommend it lowly especially the sexual segregation that is totally enforced at Rikers.
What about Devil’s Island or whatever the remote island that Papillon somehow escaped from is called?
Pacman in the Bahamas? I wonder where Arum’s mind is these balmy days. They even have casinos there.
Let’s rethink this whole thing and go with MP training in Cebu first and then on to the Roach Trap in Hollywood.
Attention all Joan Guzman haytas, how come I don’t see or hear any lightweights calling him out?
Riddle me that, those of you who despise the Dominican Dandy…
The Hanson Brothers from the 1977 movie “Slap Shot.” (Universal Pictures)
Why are some Filipino boxing types trashing Pacman’s Perpetual Shadow Michael Koncz during “Be Kind To Canadians” Week? Without Canada, we wouldn’t have Joni Mitchell, Wayne Gretzky, Marty McSorley, Orland Kurtenbach or Koncz. Not to mention the awesome Hanson Brothers!
I don’t think he’d hit me so I will say it. Yo Paulie Malignaggi may be a good soccer player but he throws a baseball like a girl as the inimitable Teddy B. (for Boxing) Blackburn’s photo from a ceremonial opening pitch at a Brooklyn Cyclones game shows. I am told Paulie, getting ready to go to Houston to fight skidding Juan Diaz, is the first softball pitcher to ever be so honored by the Mets farm team. Not only that, Paulie’s pitch reached the catcher on only four bounces. Having said that, wouldn’t it be great if Malignaggi further upset the “Baby Bull” apricot in Texas? Unfortunately, he pittypats with his punches so much that airport security doesn’t even do a weapons check on the Brooklyn boxer any longer…
Teddy B. Blackburn. (DBE Photo)
Vernon Forrest, rest his soul, was known for fast hands but they weren’t fast enough in a wild shootout (is there another kind?) with a robber or robbers in Atlanta. I guess it’s easier to shoot out of the woods than into them.
One nitwit wrote that it wasn’t a carjacking, just a robbery that led to Forrest’s violent death. What is a carjacking but a robbery or an attempted robbery in which your vehicle (Forrest drove a Jaguar) is the target? Just because the crook(s) was satisfied with the wallet doesn’t mean he was also after the fancy car.
James Kirkland, felon packing a gun. Alexis Arguello, likely suicide by his own gun. The son of Guzman manager Jose Nunez riddled with bullets in Bushwick, Brooklyn, dead weeks before he turned 22.
Does this madness ever end?
Nate Campbell recently told a story about following some muggers in Florida and holding them for police. Good deed, indeed, but Soupy was asked what if the criminals had shot him.
No problem, Soupy said, because he had a gun also.
Maybe Campbell is an expert marksmen or is trained in gun safety but, somehow, I doubt it.
Yeah, so did Forrest. Lot of good it did him, pursuing the guy(s) who swiped his wallet and the end result is he is hit with numerous shots.
Young men with guns are killing each other in America at record rates.
But hey, let’s look on the bright side.
Our prisons are less overcrowded, right?
