Volcanic Lou DiBella, the boxing promoter and baseball team owner, got intoxicated when he put on a card starring Kermit “The Frog” Cintron in Puerto Rico last week.
It wasn’t so much the famed Boricua rum that has put DiBella into an inebriated condition. Hanging out with Juan Manuel Lopez, Tito and Don Felix Trinidad and other island boxing personalities, DiBella heard plenty of pro Miguel Cotto chatter.
So now DiBella has a mild case of Cotto Fever as in starting to become convinced that the Boricua Banger is going to upset Pinoy Idol Manny Pacquiao.
DiBella, who once offhandedly and with no malice referred to Pacman as “the little Filipino guy,” is also the former head of HBO’s boxing operations.
Volcanic Lou DiBella, star client Paulie Malignaggi (Brickcityboxing.com Photo)
So his opinion has some weight.
Now the chief owner of the newly-christened Richmond, Va., Flying Squirrels (AA Eastern League affiliate of the San Francisco Giants), thinks he may take a busman’s holiday to Vegas for Pacman-Cotto.
“I may have to make a legal bet out there on Miguel,” DiBella said. “Manny is great but I think Cotto can hit him and hurt him. He may be too strong for Pacman. This isn’t an old Oscar or a clueless Hatton he’s fighting this time.”
So, while DiBella thinks he can rake in some extra acorns with a Cotto wager, keep in mind this is an excitible guy whose minor league almost was named the Rhinos, the Flatheads, the Rock Hoppers or the Flatheads. DiBella just moved the ballclub from Norwich, Ct., where they were known as the Connecticut Defenders. (For some redneck reason, my lovely suggestion of Richmond Rebels was rejected in the former capital of the Confederacy.)
Fil Am matchmaker Joe Quiambo patting himself on the back for always supporting countryman and idol Manny Pacquiao (Facebook)
If DiBella wants an office argument on this fight he need look no further than his Fil-Am matchmaker, Broadway Joe Quiambo, an ardent Pacquiao admirer.
Quiambo woulld say that his bossman doesn’t know from balut.
