So Floyd Mayweather Jr. picked apart Shane Mosley like most people thought he would, and everyone is speculating on what?s next for the unbeaten Mayweather.
Retirement? Not yet. Another contender? Waste of time.
Mayweather and his camp know exactly what needs to happen next, and it?s ridiculous to let anything stand in the way of it. He needs to sit down and figure out a way to make a deal to fight Manny Pacquiao.
Arguably the two best pound-for-pound fighters in the world need this. The sport of boxing needs this.
They called Mayweather-Mosley a big fight and said the buzz was building as the fight grew closer. But come on. Who really thought Mosley was going to win?
To put these so-called ?big-name? fighters in front of Mayweather or Pacquiao is just avoiding the inevitable. In the words of ex-referee Mills Lane: ?Let?s get it on.?
Mayweather?s people want drug testing. Pacquiao?s trainer Freddy Roach says he does not like to give blood before a fight. So figure it out. Tougher obstacles have been overcome in the sporting world.
Give the fans what they want and what the fighters know they want to. Enough stalling and get on with it already.
Change is good
Changing a flat tire on a bridge can be pretty nerve-racking stuff for a person. But after you?ve played Game 7 of the Stanley Cup playoffs, I guess a tire change seems pretty simple.
Such was the case for the Washington Capitals? Brooks Laich. His top-seeded team had just endured a devastating loss to No. 8 seed Montreal and he was on his way home on Wednesday when he came upon Mary Ann Wangemann and her 14-year-old daughter Lorraine.
The woman and her daughter were on the way home from the game and hit a pothole that caused the flat and were waiting for AAA to come help them. So Laich pulled up in his SUV and got out to help.
?He was like an angel, I?m telling you,? Mary Ann said. ?Can?t say enough nice things about him.?
Laich, who scored the Capitals? only goal in Game 7, apologized to them for the Caps losing. They told him how great the season had been and how much they liked this team. Laich said he hoped they got a chance to stay together.
The whole thing lasted maybe 40 minutes. Laich got the tire changed, and cautioned Mary Ann to drive slowly on the way home, to listen closely for any rattling sounds. She agreed, and said she didn?t know how she could possibly thank him. ?I?m sure you?ll do something nice for someone in the future,? Laich said. He hugged them and drove off. Not a bad way to work off the frustration of a Game 7 loss.
Backup plan
Winning a national championship in lacrosse will be a nice feat for Virginia?s Will Bolton, but he will also have something to fall back on.
In case things with lacrosse don?t work out for Bolton, a backup goalie and urban and environmental planning major, he already has opened, operated and sold his own small company before he ever started playing the sport.
Bolton and a friend sold snow cones. As a high school senior Bolton and a teammate opened a snow cone stand in downtown Charlottesville.
With about $5,000 in capital earned from a high-school landscaping business, they set up shop down the street from the bar where the Dave Matthews Band got its start. Bolton quickly became a mainstay in downtown Charlottesville for three years.
?We wanted to start an ice cream truck business, but the startup cost was too high,? Bolton said of the switch to snow cones. ?We went through all the hurdles getting the permits and all that and bought all the stuff on eBay.We built our own cart and we set up pretty much everyday for three years in the summer and traveled around to festivals throughout the state.?
Not so tough
There are plenty of stories about tough guys in sports.
Take for example Capitals center Eric Belanger, who had several teeth broken last week during Game 5 against the Canadiens when he was hit in the mouth by an opponent?s stick. He simply had an emergency root canal between periods and got back on the ice, saying ?I knew I was in trouble, but what are you going to do? It?s the playoffs.?
Then there?s Colorado Rockies catcher Miguel Olivo, actually passed kidney stones two nights in a row during games last week and returned to catch and get hits in each game.
But this guy is a prime example of how not to act. Soccer players are known for taking dives and faking injuries, but this players from Barcelona takes the cake in a game against a guy from Inter Milan during a game last week.
First he fakes an injury to get a penalty called on the other guy and then cameras caught him doing this.
